Noida: Gas pipeline may delay demolition of twin towers at Emerald Court

An 18-inch wide gas pipeline that passes through Sector 93A may delay the demolition process of twin towers at Supertech’s Emerald Court project due to safety reasons.

Officials from Edifice Engineering, which got the job of demolition of the twin towers, Supertech Limited, and the Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) held a meeting on Friday and discussed the need to shift the gas pipeline, which is three metres deep from the ground level, officials of Edifice said on Sunday, adding that the pipeline is just 16 metres away from the twin towers.

“We had a meeting with GAIL and Supertech to discuss the technical modalities on Friday. We have realised that demolishing the two towers without taking care of gas pipeline is not possible. Therefore, we have decided that we will submit a technical report on how the vibrations of demolition will make damages to gas pipeline in the next 15 days to GAIL. And then the GAIL will tell us how we can handle these vibrations and carry out demolition without any damage to the pipeline,” said Utkarsh Mehta of Edifice Engineering.

In its order on August 31, the Supreme Court gave three months to the Supertech group to demolish the towers, and directed the Noida authority and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) to supervise the demolition work. The Supreme Court ordered the demolition of the twin towers as the structure was built in violation of building norms.

Edifice, a Mumbai-based agency, finally on January 16 got the job of demolition of the two towers. The move came after the Supreme Court on January 14 pulled up the realtor for not implementing its earlier order. The apex court had pulled up the realtor for delay in hiring the agency that will demolish the towers.

Supertech Limited and GAIL officials could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.