Charging of Noida twin towers from today, demolition on August 28

Following the Supreme Court hearing on Friday, the charging of the Supertech twin towers in Noida’s Sector 93A will finally start from Saturday morning to ensure that the demolition takes place on August 28.

The 32-storeyed twin towers will be the tallest building in the country to be demolished. Ishtiyaq Ahmed, Noida authority chief architect and town planner, said that all procedural hurdles for the blast have been cleared and the buildings will be demolished on August 28, unless there is an unforeseen weather condition or law and order issue.

Over 3,700 kilograms of explosives will be used to bring down the 103-metre-tall structures and around 250kg of explosives will be transported to the site daily from Saturday onwards. The Mumbai-based demolition company Edifice Engineering has procured the explosives from Solar Industrial Explosives in Nagpur. It is the same firm that supplied about 1,000kg ammunition to Edifice, which demolished three illegal apartment complexes in Kerala’s Maradu in 2020.

The explosives have been stored at a magazine in Palwal in Haryana, about 100 km away from the demolition site. These will be transported to the site daily and the tiniest quantity of leftovers will be sent back to the magazine depot every day, said sources.

“It is illegal for us to store explosives at the demolition site. We will measure the explosives in milligrams and send back whatever has not been used on each day. The magazine will acknowledge and send us the formal receipt of the same quantity. This process will continue every day during the charging process,” said Kevin Smit, senior site manager, Jet Demolition (Pty) Ltd, while talking to HT.

The charging will start around 7:30am daily and will stop once the daylight reduces around 6pm. Officials said that there will be no charging after dark.

Noida police will send two escort vehicles, including five armed personnel daily, to bring the ammunition vehicle to the site. Additionally, the road outside the twin towers will be cordoned off and traffic diversions will be in place.

“The deputy commissioner of police (traffic) has already planned the route diversions as the road in front of the towers will be blocked for traffic. Police security will also be provided around the twin towers to ensure that nobody comes in the vicinity. For their own safety, people should also try to stay away and not venture near the buildings,” said Rambadan Singh, deputy commissioner of police (headquarters).

The explosives include shock tubes, detonators and emulsions. In shock tubes, explosives are used in gel or powdered form. Officials from Edifice said that these explosives are weak in nature and the large quantity is to ensure that they break the concrete. Officials further added that the sale of explosives is highly regulated.

“Solar, which manufactures these explosives, will not give it to anyone else. There is an online system. The government will also know how much and where explosives have been used. We will have to inform the magazine about the quantity and types of explosives required to be placed in the columns of the towers a day in advance daily,” said Mayur Mehta, project manager, Edifice Engineering.

The magazine depot in Palwal where the explosives are stored is also certified by the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) and works under its guidelines. At site, there will be a total of 40 staff authorised for entry. This will include 17 certified blasters—seven foreign experts from Jet Demolition and another company and 10 Indian certified blasters. The 17 blasters will also have one staff each for assistance and six additional staff, including labourers experienced in handling explosives.

According to the blast design, there are 11 primary blast floors and seven secondary floors in Apex tower that has 32 floors. With 29 floors, Ceyanne tower will have one less primary blast floor. Primary blast floors are where all columns on the floor will have explosives fixed and blasted. Secondary blast floors are where 60% of the columns will be blasted.

The charged columns will be wrapped in wired mesh and geotextile cloths. The wraps will protect debris from flying and damaging nearby buildings. According to officials, there will be six layers each for floors between the basement and sixth floors and four layers each on the upper floors.

The neighbouring buildings in Emerald Court and ATS Village will also have geotextile covering. Wrapping of these buildings has also been started. About 225 tonnes of wired mesh made of galvanised iron and geotextile in 110-km length would be used in the entire process.

Once the charging is over, the lifts will also be removed and officials will climb all 32 floors and check each connection of the explosives manually to ensure that everything is in place.

“This will take about four hours on the day of the blast. However, it is an essential process. It may just happen that everything is in place at night, but a stray pigeon has caused some problem by the next morning. So, we will walk slowly and carefully downwards rechecking 20,000-odd connections manually on the day of the blast,” said Smit.

Officials added that CCTV cameras are now operational to monitor every movement in and out of the twin towers. Additionally, during the blast, the company will also monitor vibration on ground, acceleration and velocity of the fall, air over pressure, noise in decibels and dust pollution levels.