Supertech twin towers: Can steel plates or trench keep the gas pipeline safe?

NOIDA: The Chennai-based Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC), a laboratory of
the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, will go through the plan to bring down
the Supertech twin towers in Noida and measures to keep an underground gas pipeline just 15
metres away from site safe from the impact of the explosion.
Scientists and experts of the government institute will conduct several tests of the structures and
other components that could be affected by the explosion to demolish the Apex and Ceyane
towers. SERC, which conducts instrumentation and response measurements of railway
overbridges and vibration testing, has been helping GAIL to withstand stress on underground
gas pipelines.
Edifice Engineering, the Mumbai-based company given the responsibility of bringing down the
twin towers, hit the first hurdle in the demolition process in the form of the gas pipeline. “While
preparing the preliminary plan itself, the presence of the pipeline was taken into account. It is a
hurdle that can be cleared with some additional preparation. The timeline specified by the
Supreme Court has to be adhered to,” said an official of the Noida Authority who has been
coordinating between Supertech Limited and Edifice on the matter.
GAIL officials, meanwhile, have sought the entire plan from Edifice. The gas authority will give
its go-ahead to the demolition process only after the plan is vetted by experts of CSIR-SERC.
Sources said the pressure with which the debris would roll on the ground after the demolition
and the vibration they would cause would have to be examined, among other aspects. The gas
pipeline, owned by Indraprastha Gas Limited, runs parallel to the Supertech Emerald
Court project. The supply of gas through the pipeline can neither be stopped for a few minutes
during the demolition nor can it be rerouted.
Sources said Edifice was exploring the option of putting up heavy steel plates to cover the 200-
metre-long stretch of the pipeline to protect it from the impact of the debris. The other option, the
sources said, is to dig the ground around the buildings to create a trench that would absorb the
shockwaves and vibrations caused by the debris.
Residents also said they were curious to know how the company was planning the demolition
process. “The gas pipeline is running below the green belt maintained by the Noida Authority.
We are trying to find out how Supertech and the company engaged by it are planning to keep it
insulated from the impact of the explosion,” said UBS Teotia, president, Emerald Court
residents’ welfare association.
On August 31 last year, the Supreme Court had ordered the demolition of the twin towers in
Sector 93A. It had ruled that the towers had been built by violating the building bylaws in
collusion with a few Noida Authority officials.