India demolishes high-rise twin towers for violating building laws – National

Two high-rise apartment buildings in India were razed in a controlled demolition on Sunday after the country’s top court ruled them illegal for violating building norms, officials said. They became India’s tallest structures to be leveled.

More than 1,500 families evacuated their homes in the area more than seven hours before the nearly 100-meter (328-foot) tall towers collapsed inward from the effects of the implosion. Erected by a private contractor in the city of Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi, the 32- and 29-story towers were yet to be occupied.

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“Overall, everything is fine,” said Ritu Maheshwari, a government official, after the demolition. “It happened as expected.”

The demolition was completed in seconds, but a 12-year court battle ensued between residents in the area and construction company Supertech Limited.

The towers’ demolition came after the Supreme Court found that the builder, in collusion with government officials, had violated laws prohibiting construction within a certain distance of nearby buildings.

The Supreme Court said the construction of the two towers was also illegal because the builder had not obtained mandatory approval from other apartment owners in the area.

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Before demolition, the towers were surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and special coverings to keep dust out of the about 88,000 tons of debris that would result, officials said. Disposal of all debris will take three months.

Residents are expected to return to the area Sunday night after experts surveyed the impact of the demolition. Some apartments are only nine meters (29.5 feet) from the blast site and the required safe distance is 20 meters (65.6 feet).

“It would rank among the top five demolitions in the world in terms of height, volume, steel and tightness of structure,” Utkarsh Mehta, a partner at Edifice Engineering who brought down the building in collaboration with South Africa’s Jet Demolition, said to one Price of 180 million rupees (2.25 million US dollars).

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Mehta said 3,500 kilograms (7,716 pounds) of explosives were drilled into thousands of holes in the towers’ pillars and shears. Experts used the waterfall method of demolition, in which one floor collapses into the next.

Jet Demolition director Joe Brikmann previously said he was confident no damage would be done to the buildings adjacent to the demolished towers.

“The buildings in this area are in an earthquake prone zone (Zone IV) and are built to withstand earthquakes much stronger than the tremors of an implosion. We are confident that the implosion of the towers will not cause any property damage,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India newspaper.

The tallest building in the world to date to be demolished with explosives was 165 meters (541 feet) tall and occurred on November 27, 2020 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, according to Guinness World Records.