"Law Ultimately Catches Up": Top Bureaucrat On Noida Twin Tower Demolition

Additional Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh Awanish K Awasthi on Saturday said that the demolition of "illegal" twin towers prove that the law ultimately catches up. 

"These illegal twin towers were ordered to be demolished in strict action by the Supreme Court. This proves law will ultimately catch up. This will send a message that illegal work will not be tolerated in the state," says Awanish K Awasthi, ACS,Home, UP. 

This came moments before the Supertech Twin Tower in Noida was about to be demolished by the authorities. 

The go-ahead for demolishing the twin towers with explosives was given by the Supreme Court. 

The health impact of the resulting dust on residents will be minimal as experts overseeing the demolition will take steps to control the impact. 

The Indian blaster who will press the button to demolish the Twin Towers --Chetan Dutta-- explained the details of the process that will raze the towers and termed it a "simple process". 

"We'll be almost 50-70 metres away from the building, there will be no danger and we are very much sure that the building will collapse in a proper way... blasting area is covered with four layers of iron mesh and two layers of blanket, so no rubble will fly past but dust may," Chetan Dutta had said. 

The demolition of the Apex (32 storeys) and Ceyane (29 storeys) towers would leave behind approximately 35,000 cubic metres of debris that would take at least three months to be cleared. 

The go-ahead for demolishing the twin towers with explosives was given by the Supreme Court. 

The exercise was earlier supposed to start on August 21 but the court accepted the Noida Authority's request and extended its date of demolition to August 28. 

In 2011, the Residents Welfare Association filed a petition in the Allahabad High Court. It was alleged that the UP Apartment Owners Act, 2010 was breached during the construction of the towers. The homeowners claimed that the two towers had less than 16 metres of distance between them which was in violation of the law. The original space designated for the garden in the original plan was allegedly used to erect the twin towers. 

In 2012, the Authority approved the new plan proposed in 2009, ahead of the commencement of hearing in the Allahabad High Court. 

In April 2014, the Allahabad High Court delivered the judgment in favour of the RWA while also passing an order to demolish the twin towers. It asked Supertech to demolish the towers at its own expense and also refund the money of the homebuyers along with 14 per cent interest. 

In May 2014, the Noida Authority and Supertech moved the Supreme Court stating that the construction of the twin towers were according to the regulations. 

In August 2021, however, the Supreme Court affirmed the order of the Allahabad High Court and ordered to demolish the towers while also stating that the construction had been made in violation of the regulations. 

The Supreme Court has said that the date of demolition may be confirmed as August 28, with a "bandwidth of seven days" between August 29 to September 4, to take into account any marginal delay on account of technical reasons or weather conditions. 

The twin towers were finally demolished today. 

However, the health impact of the resulting dust on residents will be minimal as experts overseeing the demolition will take steps to control the impact. 

Dr Mrinal Sircar, Head Pulmonology and Critical Care, Fortis Noida said, "When you demolish a big structure like that, there will be dust and there would be some smoke because you are using explosives. So, the direction of the air matters. The direction of the wind should also be taken into consideration. Demolishing like this or rather an explosion happening in the open air is much safer than say underground mines." 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)