NEW DELHI (AP) — Two high-rise apartment buildings in India were toppled to the ground in a controlled demolition on Sunday after the country’s Supreme Court declared them illegal for violating building codes, officials said. They have become the tallest structures in India to be demolished to the ground.
More than 1,500 families moved out of their apartments in the area more than seven hours before the 328-foot (100-meter) tall tower collapsed inward under the impact of the implosion. His 32-storey and his 29-storey towers, which were being built by private builders in the city of Noida just outside New Delhi, were still unused.
“By and large, everything is fine,” government administrator Ritu Maheshwari said after the demolition. “It happened as expected.”
The demolition was completed in seconds, but a 12-year legal battle ensued between the area’s residents and the builder, Supertech Limited.
The tower’s demolition came after the Supreme Court found that its builders colluded with government officials to violate a law prohibiting construction within a certain distance of nearby buildings.
The Supreme Court said the construction of the two towers was also illegal because the builders did not have compulsory consent from other apartment owners in the area.
Prior to the demolition, the tower was surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and a special cover to keep dust out of the approximately 88,000 tons of debris that would be generated, officials said. It takes months.
Residents are expected to return to the area on Sunday night after experts examine the effects of the demolition. Some apartments are only 9 meters (29.5 feet) from the explosion site, requiring a safe distance of 20 meters (65.6 feet).
“It will be among the top five demolitions in the world in terms of height, volume, steel and structural tightness,” says Utkarsh Mehta, partner of Edifice Engineering, who worked with South Africa’s Jet Demolition to demolish the building. said Mr. It cost 180 million rupees ($2.25 million).
Mehta said 3,500 kilograms (7,716 pounds) of explosives had been drilled into thousands of holes in the tower’s posts and shears. Experts used the waterfall method of demolition, where one floor collapses into the next.
Joe Brikmann, director of Jet Demolition, previously said he was confident that buildings adjacent to the demolished tower would not be harmed.
“Buildings in this area are in a high seismic zone (Zone IV) and are built to withstand earthquakes much stronger than the vibrations from implosion. I’m doing it,” the Times of India quoted him as saying.
According to Guinness World Records, the world’s tallest building ever demolished by explosives is 165 meters (541 feet) high, and occurred on November 27, 2020 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.