At 2:29:50 pm, Calvin Martin from Jet Demolition begins the countdown to demolition of the twin towers in Noida. At 2:30 pm, Hisar-based blaster Chetan Dutta pressed the button and a team of 6 members raised their heads to watch the disappearance of the Apex (32 storey) at the blasting site, barely 70 meters from the building. took. ) and Cayenne (29-storey) buildings. In 12 seconds, the illegal structures had disappeared from the land where they had existed for more than 10 years. Seeing this huge exercise successfully completed, many people present there wept bitterly.
Being taller than Qutub Minar, the twin towers more than 100 meters high left 85,000 kg of debris and a thick layer of dust all around. Edphis Engineering officials said the boundary wall of the towers in the neighboring ATS village was damaged by about 10 meters and window panes of adjoining buildings were also found broken, but it was already accessed and the concerned authorities were informed.
Read | Noida Twin Tower Demolition: Timeline of Major Events
Soon after a cloud of dust covered the ground, a team from Edifice Engineering and South Africa’s Jet Demolition – the two companies that carried out the task – along with officials from the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and the Noida Authority started a team. Hui. Structural audit of surrounding buildings. Later in the evening the site was given a clean chit.
Supertech twin towers are being demolished with explosives. , Video Credits: Amit Barua
Utkarsh Mehta, Founder, Edifice Engineering, said, “We have 100 crore insurance for post-demolition damages and we will put everything back in our structure.”
Jet Demolition’s detonation specialist and managing director, Joe Brinkman, said 9,642 holes were drilled in the twin towers, which contained more than 900 flats and shops, over a period of 6 months, which helped bring the structure down. The firm implemented a waterfall system in the demolition in which debris fell down like a waterfall, or a playing card house, without damaging adjacent buildings.
“The controlled detonation of about 3,700 kg of blast turned the twin towers into rubble. Moreover, with this exercise, India also joined the 100m Club of Demolition,” Mr Brinkman said.
Asked if everything went according to plan, and also the reason for crying, Mr. Brinkman said, “It was too much pressure that one puts into the act of destruction. They were tears of joy, of success.”
View after the demolition of the 100-metre-high residential “Twin Towers” in Noida, on the outskirts of New Delhi, on August 28, 2022. photo credit: Shiv Kumar Pushkar
“Vibration-monitoring system placed”
Both Jet Demolition and Edphis Engineering have installed an on-site vibration-monitoring system with a black-box that will help them study what happened inside buildings when they were turning into rubble. IIT-Chennai will also participate in the study.
In its first statement issued after the Supreme Court’s demolition orders, Supertech builders today said the twin towers were operated as per the building plan approved by the Noida development authorities and no deviations were made.
Around 5,000 people from Emerald Court and ATS Village Society had left their homes hours before the demolition. About 3,000 vehicles and about 200 pets were also saved from damage.