Airspace around Supertech twin towers ‘no-fly’ zone during demolition, final checks on

In a series of tweets, the CMO, Government of UP, said CM Yogi Adityanath has “directed to ensure strict compliance of safety standards... and safety of people residing in adjoining residential complexes should be ensured. In addition, environmental standards should also be taken care of.”

At the site Friday was Joe Brickman, managing director of Jet Demolition, the South African company partnering with Edifice for the demolition. (Express Photo)

Written by: Malavika Prasad

5 min readNoidaAug 27, 2022 06:58 AM IST First published on: Aug 27, 2022 at 02:23 AM IST

With two days to go for the Supertech twin tower demolition, a final round of checks was carried out by Edifice Engineering, along with teams from Jet Demolition and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Friday. The process will continue Saturday. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has declared a no-flying zone of one nautical mile airspace around the towers during demolition due to dust expected to emanate, as per the Noida Authority.

In a series of tweets, the CMO, Government of UP, said CM Yogi Adityanath has “directed to ensure strict compliance of safety standards… and safety of people residing in adjoining residential complexes should be ensured. In addition, environmental standards should also be taken care of.”

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At the site Friday was Joe Brickman, managing director of Jet Demolition, the South African company partnering with Edifice for the demolition. “We are carrying out checks for the final day so there are no disturbances. It is one of the most difficult tasks; the building is strong and in the seismic zone. But we’ve designed the plan and implemented it to meet challenges. Edifice will be handling the debris, which will be cleaned up in three months.”

Meanwhile, Dr DP Kanungo, chief scientist of CBRI, has been carrying out checks along with his team of over 10 people and preparing to carry out an analysis of the demolition for their own research.

“The demolition will be carried out safely; we are carrying out the final round of checks. We carried out one check today morning, tomorrow morning there will be another and then Sunday morning there will be another check, and then we will go ahead. Our main stress is instrumentation monitoring, as it is one of the largest demolitions in the country. We want to collect as much scientific data… as we can use it for future research. We had proposed to the Supreme Court about our instrumentation plan which was on the advice of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the PM and was vetted by Defence Research and Development Organisation. They said our plan is perfectly fine… our instrumentation monitoring plan… will capture the vibration, air pressure, we will get data by placing black boxes in the building on how it is falling, what is the velocity and acceleration of the fall; everything will be monitored,” Kanungo said.

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Dust monitoring

During a meeting of the Noida Authority Friday, it was stated that the UP pollution control board has installed manual ambient air quality monitoring stations at six places to monitor air quality post blast. Anti-smog machines will be installed at 15 places while 50 water tankers will clean the footpath, flora and fauna near the site. Around 100 sanitation staff, along with four mechanical sweeping machines, will be deployed. A 24×7 control room has been established which will start functioning on August 28 beginning 6 am till August 30. Information/complaints can be registered with the control room on the following numbers 0120-2425301, 0120-2425302, 0120-2425025.

A few residents from neighbouring societies expressed concerns about the effect on the air pollution due to the demolition. Sameer Bhowmik, a resident of Urja Ville in Sector 51, raised the same with Kanungo and said: “The air pollution in Noida is satisfactory today and I’m concerned about the pollution level as we do not know how the blast will affect the pollution.” Kanungo said he is not an expert on pollution but added that there is a forecast for rain on Sunday, which will be the best solution for settling dust.

Noida Police preprations

DCP (Noida) Rajesh S and DCP (Traffic) Ganesh Prasad Saha addressed the media about preparations undertaken, which includes reservation of beds at three hospitals – Yatharth Super Speciality Hospital in Sector 110, Felix Hospital in Sector 137 and Jaypee Hospital Sector 128 – for any emergencies. Eight ambulances and four fire tenders will also be at the demolition spot.

Assistant Commissioner of Police-2 (Noida) Rajneesh Kumar has been appointed nodal officer who will be answering any queries and will be present at the spot to address any inconveniences. Rajesh S said 400 police personnel will be deployed along with one team from the National Disaster Relief Force. Additionally, a helpdesk along with two police personnel will be present near the two societies.

According to Saha, entry of vehicles into the exclusion zone will be prohibited but people who are evacuating can do so until 7 am on Sunday and fresh traffic bulletins will be issued on August 28 along with regular updates on Google maps so that commuters can access alternative routes.

As per a press statement issued by the Noida Authority, Supertech Ltd has completed strengthening of columns and submitted the structural audit report carried out in affected towers of ATS village and Emerald Court which lie in the vicinity of the twin towers. The CBRI also approved the structural audit report submitted by the builder.