Elaborate arrangements were made by the umpteen news channels of India for the live telecast of the fateful event and needless to mention almost every aware Indian was glued to the television to witness the pulling down of the skyscrapers worth several hundred crore rupees. The officials of the firm tasked with the demolition pressed the button precisely at the appointed time on 28 August (AN) and probably the tallest building structure on date collapsed within a few seconds generating a huge amount of debris, dust and smoke in the area for a short period. The entire structure was grounded flawlessly with absolute precision and the precious towers became a thing of history within no time without the news of any significant collateral damage, except possibly some window panes, part of a boundary wall, and unreported small birds, insects and vermin caught unaware. The entire debris fell vertically downwards like a waterfall at 2.30 PM and the fateful and much awaited event was over in just about 12 seconds.

The teams from the Edifice Engineering, Jet Demolitions, Central Building Research Institute and Noida authority were present to carry out and supervise the entire operation. The Noida Expressway was opened for the commuters within half-hour and residents allowed to move back after 6.30 PM on the same date restoring the supplies of all essential services including water and gas. The residents were advised to use masks indoors to avoid any pollution including dust; however, the majority of them preferred to check-in their apartments the next morning although many visited the same day to check their houses from the safety point. Soon afterwards, the focus of authorities was shifted towards the cleaning operation including the removal of the mountain of debris fallen at the site. Reportedly, the Noida Authority had already engaged a large number of sanitation workers, smog guns, mechanical sweeping machines, and so on for quick disposal of the fall out in the vicinity including the metal and concrete pieces and slabs in and around the implosion site. However, according to a rough prior estimate, about eighty thousand tons (assessment vary in various reports) of debris would be created that may take upto three months for safe disposal.

More Noticeable Facts and Key Points

No other case of corruption and procedural violations involving a powerful and influential real estate company and government officials has received so much public curiosity and attention as also the media coverage in the recent past than the Noida twin towers. Also, the demolition of the skyscraper residential building in Noida is certainly not the first case of its kind in history because many other massive and high rise buildings have been demolished across the globe including India in the past owing to corruption, alternative use, or other reasons. Some of the iconic building demolished across the globe in the past include Singer Building, Savoy Plaza Hotel, Vanderbilt Houses and Hippodrome Theatre in New York, Chicago Federal Building and Prentice Pavillion in Chicago, Imperial and Okura Hotels in Tokyo, Imperial Institute and Euston Station in London, Church of the Archangel Michael in Warsaw, Marlborough-Blenheim Hotel in Atlantic City, Federal Coffee Palace in Melbourne, and Pratibha Building in Mumbai – just naming a few. For the illustration sake, the author would only briefly mention two cases from India’s economic capital Mumbai and both are iconic too due the high level of corruption involved and violation of laid down norms during the construction and allotment to the eligible buyers.

Pratibha Building in the posh Breach-Candy Area of Mumbai could be cited as the first major scandal due to corrupt practices in India involving a high rise residential building which was raged to the ground in 2019, almost thirty-five years after the illegal construction through violation rules and norms by the builder was exposed by the then collector in 1984. It was a 36-storied building with each floor having two sprawling flats, buyers of which were mostly high net worth individuals, NRIs and private companies. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had demolished the top eight floors during 1989 to 1995 while the rest of the building was demolished after a prolonged legal battle. As Pratibha Building was located in the city’s one of the most posh localities densely developed and populated, it was not possible to use explosives for demolition. Hence the entire building of the remaining 28-floors was demolished bit-by-bit chiseling away at the pillars and beams floor by floor – an arduous task indeed which took several months for the demolition and removal of debris from the site.

Another major housing corruption scandal was unearthed in Mumbai in November 2010 in the form of the Adarsh Housing Society Scam. The 31-storied housing society was constructed on premium defense land in Colaba area for the welfare of the war widows and defence personnel. Instead, many ineligible politicians, bureaucrats and military officers conspired to fiddle with the rules regarding land ownership, zoning, floor space index and membership and got allotted several flats for self use at below-market rates. When the scam surfaced and flared up, the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan was forced to resign and a two-member judicial commission was constituted to investigate it. The report of the judicial commission highlighted 25 illegal allotments, including many proxy purchases, and a host of politicians and bureaucrats including four former chief ministers, two former urban development ministers, and twelve senior bureaucrats were indicted for various illegal acts. The Mumbai High Court ordered demolition of the building in 2016, and the society’s appeal is pending in the Supreme Court since 2018 along with stay granted against demolition. Simultaneously, various central investigating agencies too are currently investigating the role and conduct of suspects involved.

However, the current case of the Noida twin tower is unique on several counts. Unlike the ones already reported above, this case did not directly involve any influential politician, bureaucrats, or business community and the legal fight with the real estate giant was spearheaded by a group of ordinary residents with remarkable courage and tenacity. It took almost ten years long battle to get justice through the highest judiciary of the land. The other unique features of the case include the size of the building, huge number and capacity of the illegally constructed luxury apartments, and its value in real estate terms (estimated over Rs 7,000 million on current rates). Yet another unique feature in this case is the engagement and full exploitation of the modern technology in pulling down the massive building within a few seconds without any significant collateral damage; the precision and swiftness with which the entire operation was flawlessly carried out by the executing agency is indeed admirable. Some more important and unique highlights are briefly summed up here:

The demolition of the Noida twin towers plainly falls in the category of an unprecedented, largest and most challenging building demolition exercise in the country so far. The operation was characterized by months’ long painstaking preparations, a systematic and meticulous planning with the calibrated use of explosives and circuits.

In terms of numbers, the Apex tower had 32 floors and Ceyane 29 floors; built-up area measured about 7.5 lakh square feet; estimated value of flats over Rs 700 crore; approximately 1,400 families and 3,000 vehicles were evacuated on the day; about 100 workers took two weeks for charging the towers with explosives and circuits; Rs 20 crore spent as demolition cost; estimated 80,000 tons debris including concrete, rubble, steel and iron bars, etc.