Read: Twin Towers Demolition LIVE Updates
Over 3,700 kg of explosives will be used to bring down the nearly 100-metre-tall structures – taller than Delhi’s iconic Qutub Minar – in just 9 seconds.
Last-minute checks of explosive and related arrangements for demolitions were done on Saturday and all that is left now is to connect the exploder and press the button, said officials of the demolition project.
The towers are being demolished in pursuance of a Supreme Court order that found their construction within the Emerald Court society premises in violation of norms.
The construction of Supertech’s twin towers in Noida was an engineering marvel, their demolition will be no less than a feat
Here’s what will happen on Sunday:
Evacuation of residents
Around 5,000 residents of Emerald Court and adjoining ATS Village societies began to vacate their premises on Saturday and the process will be completed by 7 am on Sunday. Around 3,000 vehicles have also been moved away from the demolition site.
The will allowed to return to their residences only after 4 pm pending safety clearance post demolition by agencies concerned.
Some of the residents live in towers located just nine meters away from the twin buildings.
Flying rubble is a major concern, and to prevent that, the blasting area has been covered with four layers of iron mesh and two layers of blanket. No rubble will fly past, but dust may
Traffic diversions and precautions
An exclusion zone will be created in a radius of up to 500 metres around the twin towers where no human or animal will be allowed except for a team of Indian and foreign blasters engaged in the demolition.
Diversions will be placed on roads leading to the twin towers in Noida Sector 93A from Sunday morning while the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway, barely 200 metres from the demolition site, will be closed for vehicular movement from 2 pm to 3 pm, DCP (Traffic) Ganesh Saha said.
Google maps will have updated feeds for diversions and real-time traffic situations on Sunday, Saha said, adding that arrangements have been made for movement of emergency vehicles.
DCP (Central Noida) Rajesh S said around 400 police personnel will be deployed for law and order duty, while PAC and NDRF personnel will be on the ground for any contingencies.
Noida chief medical officer Dr. Sunil Sharma said the health department would station six ambulances at the site equipped with officials and medicines. Beds have been reserved at the district hospital and private medical facilities at Yatharth, Felix and Jaypee.
Airspace closed
Due to the massive amount of dust that will be generated due to the explosions, around 2 km of airspace around the twin towers will also be briefly unavailable for flights. A ban on the use of drones came into effect on August 26 and will remain in place till August 31.
Connecting the exploder
“Once all residents have left and all the teams get down from the buildings, the two towers: Apex and Ceyane, have to be inter-connected. After that a 100-metre-long cable will be run from the towers to the exploder to demolish the buildings,” said Edifice Engineering’s project manager Mayur Mehta.
Demolition at 2.30pm
“Once we get the clearance from the police department that the exclusion zone is 100%, then at 2.30 pm on Sunday we will press the button,” he said.
Asked how confident he was regarding safe demolition, Mehta said: “100%. I don’t have any other word. We are 100% confident.”
“We have got a Rs 100 crore insurance for damage during the event but are confident we won’t have to claim it,” he said, adding: “We have been very precise with what we are doing. If a hole drilled in building for explosives has to be 2.634 mm, then we have been precise to the last decimal digit. If we calculated that 9,640 holes have to be drilled, it has to be 9,640. We have to be precise in order to have the fall in the manner we envisage.”
Mehta said there could be “cosmetic cracks” in paint or plasters of close by buildings that have already weakened and some glass windows may also develop cracks.
“We have already got a contractor placed for work on the same day. Teams are going to be ready at 6 pm on that day once everything looks clear, and they will start replacing the cracked glasses,” he added.
Who is performing the implosion?
Mehta’s Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering has roped in South African experts Jet Demolitions for the project.
The two firms have previously collaborated on taking down the Maradu complexes in Kochi, Kerala, in 2020 which were four residential buildings with 18 to 20 storeys.
In 2019, Jet Demolitions had safely brought down the 108-metre high Bank of Lisbon building in Johannesburg, South Africa, where the adjacent building was just 8 metres away.
How will the towers fall?
The demolition of the twin towers will be carried out through the waterfall implosion technique which would bring them down within a few seconds literally like a house of cards. “Implosion technique is used to make a building fall within itself while in explosion the debris goes outside. Implosion works on the principle of gravity,” said Mehta.
Supertech Demolition: How Apex and Ceyane buildings will be brought down
The main job of bringing down the buildings will be of the primary floors, which have been fully charged. The secondary floors will give a direction to the demolition – so that the towers come down like a cascading waterfall into its own imprint.
Over 9,500 charging holes have been drilled into the buildings, a delayed detonator has also been placed for sequential blasting. In each of the holes, the amount of explosives ranges from 250gm to 1kg.
The event will leave behind a whopping 55,000 tonnes of debris, even as some estimates put the figure at 80,000 tonnes. The debris will take an estimated three months to be cleared and disposed of.
Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari said all arrangements are being made to clear the dust from the area in the aftermath of the demolition. Besides sanitation workers, mechanical sweeping machines, anti-smog guns, water sprinklers would be placed at the site, she said.
Who will press the trigger?
Chetan Dutta, a 49-year-old blaster, will press the button to commence the demolition. “It’s like a dream come true,” said Dutta, who hails from Hisar in Haryana.
Dutta, who runs a firm that is involved in building demolition, was approached by Edifice Engineering in July. “In the last 10 days, we have very carefully loaded the explosives. We are ready now,” he added.
“I have been in this line of business since 2002. I have conducted the demolition of thermal power plants, mines and other structures. But this is the first residential building for which I am acting as a blaster,” he said.
Dutta said he will be stationed about 50-70 metres away from the building while pressing the button.
Indian law states that the button has to be pressed by an Indian, if it had not been the case then Jet Demolitions’ director Joe Brinkmann, called the master blaster by his colleagues, would most likely have pressed the button himself, said Dutta.
(With inputs from agencies)