For Supertech neighbours, day began with nerves but ended in hope
Till 7 am on Sunday, cars streamed out of the Supertech Emerald Court complex and the neighbouring ATS Greens Village as the last remaining residents evacuated their homes before the demolition. A majority of residents had left the previous night.
6 min read
Temporary arrangements for evacuees. Abhinav Saha With 30 seconds to go for 2.30 pm, a group of Supertech Emerald Court residents, gathered on a terrace in a nearby residential complex, began a countdown.
They came down to “… 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,” but nothing happened. Amid murmurs, all their gazes remained fixed on the twin towers located in the residential complex in which they live. Around 40 seconds later, a muffled boom was heard and the towers began to collapse into clouds of dust. Shivani Goel (59) and Mamata Agrawal (57) — walking partners — held on to each other, until Agrawal began clapping and was joined by several other residents.
Demolished Supertech twin towers in Noida on Sunday. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
“I had been feeling anxious since morning, like I felt when I was a child and had an exam later in the day,” said Goel. “I was praying to god for it to go smoothly. I was feeling most nervous for the people whose homes are in the building just a few metres away from the towers. But when I saw them go down, it looked like I had imagined it would go,” she said.
Till 7 am on Sunday, cars streamed out of the Supertech Emerald Court complex and the neighbouring ATS Greens Village as the last remaining residents evacuated their homes before the demolition. A majority of residents had left the previous night.
While many residents headed to the homes of their relatives or friends or to hotels, some of them decided to spend the day at neighbouring complexes which had opened up their clubhouses to accommodate the evacuees for the day.
At the demolition site, 20 monitoring systems were set up by both Edifice Engineering, which handled the demolition, and Central Building Research Institute (CBRI). (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
“This is a battle we have been fighting for 10 years, we can’t leave it at this last step. We should be here to see the demolition and to help other residents,” Naresh Agarwal (62), treasurer of the Emerald Court Residents Welfare Association, said before the demolition. He and his wife spent the day at Parsvnath Prestige complex, barely half a kilometre away from the site.
“We have to be close to give confidence to all the other residents. We want to live as a community… My home is barely 30 metres from the demolition site but I am 100 per cent confident,” he said.
F A Khan (62), his wife and son spent the day in another neighbouring residential complex, Silver City. “It’s a case our society has fought for 10 years and won, and we wanted to see its end. Watching it on TV is a different thing. I am sure our society will flourish after this. We used to not get any sunlight or wind in our home because of the towers,” he said.
Delayed for months, the demolition finally took place, in line with the directions of the Supreme Court, on Sunday for violating set rules, building regulations and fire safety norms. (Express photo by Gajendra Yadav)
Most residents who were spending the day in neighbouring complexes had arrived with minimal belongings. Ekta Gupta said all she brought with her to Parsvnath Prestige were a fresh set of clothes for her family of four, in case they needed to spend the night there for any reason. For Gupta, the day was especially weighty. While her family lives on rent in another building in the Emerald Court complex, they own a flat in the Apex tower, one of the buildings which were demolished.
“It’s a strange feeling that it will be coming down after all these years. We are one of the families which still have not received any refund for our flat,” she said.
Soon after she settled her family in their place of shelter for the day, Gupta began looking around for a good vantage point to view the demolition.
At the Parsvnath Prestige society, gardeners were put to work to prune some trees to ensure a clear vantage point from the ground as well. But most Supertech residents made their way to the terrace by 2.15 pm.
The residents’ welfare association of Parsvnath complex had made arrangements for residents in six rooms at its clubhouse with mattresses laid down at the squash court, table tennis room, and ‘ladies spa’. They had also arranged for breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and tea throughout the day for the residents.
“Around 150 people had confirmed they would spend the day here today but we made arrangements for some additional people, just in case,” said RWA president Rajnish Nandan.
At Silver City, the RWA had set up cots and mattresses on the floor of their large clubhouse hall, and had also arranged breakfast, lunch and snacks.
While the air appeared to have cleared 20 minutes after the demolition, the primary worry for residents remains whether the dust will affect them.
Nirmal Tandon (79), president of the Emerald Court ladies club, spent the day in her daughter’s home in Silver City. “I have been sharing newspaper clippings on precautions and potential health hazards with my club members. My only concern is the after effect of the dust, especially on senior citizens. I will spend a few days in my daughter’s home, I’m not hurrying back to mine,” she said.
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