Supreme Court postpones twin tower demolition by 1 week to August 28 | India News

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday postponed the demolition of Supertech’s illegally constructed twin towers on Noida-Greater Noida expressway by a week to August 28, and asked Noida authorities and Edifice Engineering to strictly adhere to the recommendations of the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee.
Accepting the report of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)-CBRI, submitted through chief scientist D P Kanungo, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and A S Bopanna acceded to senior advocate Ravindra Kumar’s request on behalf of Noida and granted an additional window of seven days — August 29-September 4 — for completion of the demolition of the two 40-storey buildings in case some supervening circumstances like technical reasons or weather conditions delay the August 28 demolition.
Appearing for Supertech IRP, senior advocate Devadat Kamat informed the court that though the IRP’s hands are tied financially by NCLT orders, it has paid Rs 70 lakh as fees of CBRI on court orders and requested the SC to make provision for additional payments that would have to be made from Supertech funds towards future costs relating to the demolition.
CSIR-CBRI, in its report to the SC, said the demolition debris of the two towers is estimated to pile up to a height of 11 metres, which is around four storeys. “As per the construction & demolition waste management plan (yet to be approved by the state pollution control board) submitted to CSIR-CBRI by Edifice on August 9, the average height of the post-demolition debris pile will be about 11m (as per reasonable calculation).”
“In view of this, barricading in the periphery of the debris pile may be done up to a maximum height of 12m for post-demolition activities and safeguarding the surrounding habitat. If deemed appropriate by the joint inspection team after demolition, the geo-textile fabrics removed from the surrounding buildings after demolition can be reused for this purpose,” the report informed the court.
“Upon completion of the demolition task, a joint team of Noida, CSIR (CBRI and Central Institute of Mining and Fuel Research – CIMFR), and Edifice, along with a representative of the local police, should visually inspect the debris and surrounding buildings before permitting evacuated residents to return and occupy their apartments,” it said, indicating that the evacuated residents of surrounding areas would have to stay away from their flats for at least a week after the date of actual demolition.
CBRI said it had permitted charging the twin towers with explosives on August 11, subject to following assurances: a) submission of structural analysis report by Edifice before August 15; b) structural audit report and completion of strengthening/repairing/retrofitting measures by Supertech at least three days prior to the demolition date without fail for three nearest towers of Emerald Court; and c) structural audit for the four towers of ATS village within 50m of the blast radius at least three days prior to the demolition date.
“These three actions are imperative for ensuring adequate data base and preventive actions towards safety of neighbouring structures, and assurances and compliances to this effect must be received by CSIR-CBRI prior to commencement of charging of the buildings to be demolished. Specifically, the strengthening process involving concreting for the Emerald Court towers must be taken on priority to achieve the desired strength before demolition,” the report said.
“The data generated from actions will then be reviewed by CSIR-CBRI within 24 hours of each submission. After review and found in compliance with the desired strength parameters for safe demolition, the final demolition can be authorised to proceed,” it said.
The CSIR (CBRI & CIMFR) team proposed to monitor the ground vibration and air overpressure (AOp) besides visual monitoring of demolition process using high speed video camera (RGB & thermal sensors) and inertia monitoring of the towers.