Before Supertech’s twin towers in Sector 93A are demolished on August 21, families living in 1,396 flats in the immediate vicinity will have to move to a different location. They also have to take their cars and two-wheelers with them since no vehicle will be allowed within a 100-metre radius of the blast site, neither on roads, nor in buildings’ basements.
Though the recommended evacuation is five hours ahead of the demolition, which is scheduled for 2.30pm on August 21, officials involved in preparations for the challenging exercise said they could ask for it to be advanced by a day.
A final decision on the evacuation deadline for families will be taken next week at a meeting in which representatives of RWAs, the police brass and Noida Authority officers will participate.
The twin towers, Apex and Ceyane, are flanked by other buildings of Supertech’s Emerald Court on one side and ATS Greens Village on the other. Emerald Court has 660 flats and Greens Village has 736, all of which will have to be evacuated, affecting around 5,000 residents.
At a meeting on Wednesday for the final leg of preparations for the demolition – a formidable task since the towers are the tallest buildings in India that will be brought down, besides being within a populated locality – an exclusion zone was finalised.
This will extend to 250 metres to the left and right of the towers, covering Emerald Court and Greens Village, 450 metres in front (covering a park) and 270 metres to the back, which is Emerald Court’s green belt. Portions of sector roads and the Noida Expressway will also come within the exclusion zone.
No one other than the core blast team and designated officers can be inside the exclusion zone five hours before the blast and two hours after it. Officials at the meeting said the assistance of RWAs will be sought to designate ‘tower managers’, who will be in charge of overseeing evacuations.
Power supply to both societies will be shut down after the evacuation since the process of rigging the columns and walls of Apex and Ceyane with explosives would have been completed by then. Edifice, the engineering firm that’s bringing the towers down, will begin ‘charging’ the towers – bringing in explosives – from August 2.
Police have asked to submit a detailed security plan in the next couple of days to the Noida Authority. A separate meeting with the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been planned. A full-dress rehearsal is being planned on August 14 to assess preparedness and emergency response.
Sources said Supertech has agreed to carry out repair and retrofitting work at Emerald Court based on the structural audit report of a private company hired by the RWA. Supertech has written to the Airports Authority of India and the Air Force for a no-flight zone to be declared up to a radius of 10km of the towers for an hour, from 2pm to 3pm, on August 21.