Edifice Engineering, the company which has been roped in to demolish the twin towers in Noida Sector 93 A on May 22 on the order of the Supreme Court, will take more than two months to bring down the structures, sources said.
“There will be a more than a two month delay. It is taking a long time to prepare the buildings as they are very strong. The company does not want to go ahead with the demolition until it is satisfied about the preparations. It is for this reason that an extension has been requested for by the engineering firm,” sources said, adding that the Edifice has written to the builder for an extension.
Noida Authority, however, said that it will not be able to extend the timeline.
“We are not proposing any delay. The demolition agency has written to the builder to extend it by three more months but the builder has not written or spoken to us. We will not be giving any extension. We selected the agency basis certain commitments and timelines. The builder is responsible for carrying out the demolition on the directions of the court. We have to monitor so we had to finalise the agency but that was on the commitment of timelines,” Ritu Maheshwari, chief executive officer of Noida Authority, told Moneycontrol.
“Any delay by five or 10 days is still tolerable but not three months. Let the builder approach the Supreme Court. We are denying any extension. The builder has not approached us. It is the builder’s responsibility. If he approaches us, then we will respond and take a call. But we will not accept a three month delay. That is amply clear,” she said.
The towers are expected to be demolished on May 22 following the Supreme Court’s orders.
Utkarsh Mehta, partner at Edifice, had told Moneycontrol in a podcast aired on March 31 that for the final blast scheduled for May 22 there would be a pre-defined evacuation zone and impact cushions would be installed to contain the vibrations. “Dates may change if we are not fully prepared,” he had said, adding: “As of now it is May 22 and we are working towards it.”
The test blast was carried out earlier this month to determine the exact quantity of explosives needed to bring down the two 40-storeyed buildings in Noida that were declared illegal by the Supreme Court in August last year.
“The objective of the test blasts was to determine the exact amount of explosives that will be required for the final demolition and the procedure to be followed to control the flying dust as a result of the demolition,” the Noida Authority had said in a statement.
The test blast was conducted in the presence of Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Noida Authority and Supertech officials by Edifice Engineering experts on two floors. A total of six pillars were used for the test blast. Five of the pillars were in basement and one on the 13th floor, it said.
The entire demolition exercise – the test blast and the final blast — will cost around Rs 20 crore, he had added.
Supertech, the builder, will bear the expenses of the demolition. The Supreme Court said on August 31, 2021, that the twin towers must be demolished within three months for violating regulations on the minimum distance to be maintained between buildings.
Supertech did not respond to queries.
