Two high-rise buildings in India demolished for violating building laws

Two high-rise apartment buildings in India were razed to the ground on Sunday after India’s Supreme Court outlawed building violations, officials said.

They became the tallest buildings to be demolished in India.

More than 1,500 families moved out of apartments in the area for more than seven hours before the 328-foot-tall (100-meter) twin towers collapsed inward in a controlled explosion.

The 32- and 29-storey blocks, built by a private builder in the New Delhi suburb of Noida City, remain unoccupied.

Demolition was completed in seconds, but residents of the area fought a 12-year court battle with builder Supertech Limited.

The tower was razed after the Supreme Court found the builders had colluded with government officials to violate a law banning construction within a certain distance of nearby buildings.

Building the towers was also illegal, the Supreme Court said, because the builders did not have the mandatory consent of other apartment owners in the area.

Prior to demolition, the towers were surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and special coverings to block dust from the roughly 88,000 tons of debris that would be created, officials said. It will take three months to process all the pieces.

Residents are expected to return to the area on Sunday night after experts examine the impact of the demolition.

Some apartments were within 30 feet (9 meters) of the blast site, and the required safety distance was 65.6 feet (20 meters).

Mr Mehta said 7,716 pounds (3,500 kilograms) of explosives were drilled into thousands of holes in the tower’s posts and scissors. Experts use a waterfall demolition method, where one floor collapses to the next.

Jet Demolition director Joe Brikmann earlier said he believed buildings near the towers that were demolished would not be harmed.

“The buildings in the area are in a high seismic zone (Zone IV) and are built to experience earthquakes that are much stronger than the vibrations produced by the implosion,” he was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

“We are confident that the implosion of the tower will not cause any damage to property.”

According to Guinness World Records, the tallest building in the world to be demolished with explosives to date was 541 feet (165 meters) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on November 27, 2020.