Supertech demolition: How an Emerald Court resident overslept during evacuation

Amid the evacuation frenzy ahead of the demolition of Supertech’s twin towers in Noida on Sunday, a seven-member task force of the Emerald Court society entrusted with carrying out evacuation from the 660 flats faced a challenge- one of the residents dozed off inside the flat, unaware of the army of volunteers knocking at his door.

Naresh Keswani, one of the task force members, revealed that around 6.30am on Sunday, when final checks were being carried out by the security staff to ensure every resident has evacuated the place, one house was still locked from inside.

“We created a system of pasting stickers outside the house after a resident left the house so that security personnel can ensure from outside that the house has been evacuated. In addition to this, each of the 15 towers were given a list of the residents where those leaving had to sign so that we can double check that they have exited the building,” said Keswani, a resident of the society.

At one of the towers of the society, security personnel checked the registers to see that all but one of the resident had still not exited the building.

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“When we went to the house, there was no answer from inside. We were sure that the resident is inside because last checks were carried out the previous night. Since it was a top floor, there were no chances of entering the home from a window or balcony as well. For the next 15 minutes, tensions flared up as we continued to ring the door bell of the house and banged the house door as well,” said the 45-year-old.

Finally, at around 6.45am, just 15 minutes before the deadline for evacuation, the resident opened the door, in a drowsy state. “It was found that the resident had over slept and his alarm did not go off. We were thankful that he woke up finally and made sure that he left the building along with his belongings, safe and sound,” said Keswani.

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Nearly 7,000 residents of Emerald Court and ATS Village—the two societies in close proximity of the twin towers—had to be evacuated by 7am Sunday. The residents also had to remove some 2,700-odd vehicles from the premises, along with about 200 pets.

The towers were ordered to be demolished by the Supreme Court on August 31 last year on a petition filed by Supertech Emerald Court Apartment Owners’ Association. The residents had first approached the Allahabad high court and succeeded in getting an order of demolition against the two towers in 2014. They complained that the area occupied by the towers was supposed to be a green area and construction on this space amounted to breach of trust by the builder. It was also found that the two towers flouted the minimum distance rule prescribed by the National Building Code, 2005.

While upholding the high court order, the SC ordered compensation for homebuyers (deposit plus 12% interest) who bought flats in the twin towers.

According to news agency, PTI, over 3,700 kg explosives will be used to raze down the nearly 100-metre-tall structures on Sunday.