Noida: Supertech twin towers may be razed by May

NOIDA: The Supertech twin towers - Apex and Ceyane - are likely to be brought down by the end of May and the debris may be cleared by August, sources told TOI.
On Sunday, Supertech and Mumbai-based Edifice Engineering, which will carry out the demolition exercise, signed the contract, work order and agreement listing down the terms and conditions. Officials in the real estate group said they had already sent a copy of the work order and agreement to the Noida Authority and would inform the Supreme Court at the next hearing.On August 31 last year, the apex court had said that the twin towers had been constructed illegally and ordered their demolition.
Sources in the Noida Authority said the demolition exercise would cost about Rs 20 crore. While Supertech will spend Rs 4.5-5.5 crore from its coffers, the remaining cost will be recovered after auctioning the material that can be salvaged.
But there are several other hurdles to be crossed before the demolition exercise can begin. A total of 10-12 no-objection certificates or permissions have to be secured from government agencies. As a first step, Supertech and Edifice have approached the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation in Agra to seek permission to use explosives for the demolitions.
Apart from that, NOCs will have to be taken from the Noida administration, police department, traffic cell, UP pollution control board, the Gas Authority of India, and UP power corporation, among others.
But the signing of the contract, too, was preceded by several rounds of deliberations to finalise the cost estimates and the terms and conditions. Uttkarsh Mehta, a partner in Edifice Engineering, was in the city to seal the deal. "We are going to start work on the project from Monday itself. In the first week of February, we will start physical work at the site. We hope to get all the permissions and clearances by then," Mehta said.
"We are going to collaborate with a South African company. Their team of six to seven engineers will be in Noida for at least 20 to 25 days to plan the final leg of the explosion," he added.
Jet Demolition of South Africa had collaborated with Edifice earlier when the Mumbai-based firm was assigned the job of bringing down illegal towers in Kochi in January 2020.
In the case of the Supertech towers, the clearance available is nine metres. Apex, the taller of the two buildings, is 100 metres high. "We have already complied with the directives of the apex court and signed all the documents required to demolish the two structures. Payments have also been made to the buyers who wanted a refund along with interest. We also want to reiterate that our other projects are going according to schedule and we will continue to deliver units to our buyers," a spokesperson for Supertech said.