Supertech's twin towers in Uttar Pradesh's Noida were finally demolished on Sunday, ending the nine-year saga. The demolition of the Apex (32 storeys) and Ceyane (29 storeys) towers would leave behind approximately 35,000 cubic metres of debris that would take at least three months to be cleared.
The controlled implosions using 3,700 kg of explosives were India's biggest demolition to date. Thousands of people, as well as stray dogs, had to be evacuated before the blast, including from neighbouring high-rises, one of which was reportedly just nine metres away.
The go-ahead for demolishing the twin towers with explosives was given by the Supreme Court. On Saturday, the Noida Police commissionerate issued an advisory, on the eve of the demolition of the Supertech twin towers in the city, asking the media personnel to station at the designated place for the media coverage, while also making sure to bring an ID card of the organisation.
The exercise was earlier supposed to start on August 21 but the court accepted the Noida Authority's request and extended its date of demolition to August 28. The twin towers are set to be razed over grave violations of building norms. The top court had said that it was a result of "nefarious complicity" between the Noida Authority and Supertech and ordered that the company shall carry out the demolition at its own expense under the supervision of the Noida Authority and an expert body like the Central Building Research Institute.
The order had come on a batch of petitions filed by home buyers for and against the April 11, 2014 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which had ordered razing of the two buildings within four months and the refund of money to apartment buyers.
The Supreme Court has said that the date of demolition may be confirmed as August 28, with a “bandwidth of seven days” between August 29 to September 4, to take into account any marginal delay on account of technical reasons or weather conditions.
"Our overall loss is around £50 million, taking into account the amount we have spent on land and construction cost, the charges paid to authorities for various approvals, interest paid to banks over the years and the 12 per cent interest paid back to buyers of these two towers, among other costs," the company's chairman RK Arora said.
