Following a nine-year battle in court, the Supertech twin towers, situated in Noida’s Sector 93A are set to be razed in a series of explosions using 3700 kilograms of explosives on Sunday. The structure is higher than Delhi’s iconic Qutub Minar and stands at a height of about 100 metres with two towers named Apex (103 metres) and Ceyane (97 metres). Apex has 32 floors, Ceyane, 29.

The Allahabad High Court, followed by the Supreme Court, agreed that the structure is illegal and ordered it to be demolished.

Indian authorities tasked a company named Edifice Engineering with the demolition of the Noida twin towers. The controlled demolition will be held at 2:30 pm today, August 28, 2022. 

The entire process began at 6 am, when Noida police began evacuation of people in nearby Emerald Court and ATS Village societies. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) arrived at the demolition site early. 

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More than 7000 people, 150 pets and 2,500 vehicles from around the towers have been evacuated. Gas and electricity supply has been halted at nearby residential buildings and these will be restored only at 4 pm. People will be allowed back into their homes after 5.30 pm. 

The no-go zone of the explosion has been set at 500 metres. At 2:15 pm, the Greater Noida Expressway traffic will be stopped since the road is within the no-go zone.

The demolition will be conducted with a remote-controlled series of explosions and will get underway at 2:30 pm from the ATS Village. The venue will have only six people near the Noida twin towers — Joe Brinkkman (head of explosive operations), Mayur Mehta, Kevin Smit, Marthinus Botha, a police officer and Chetan Dutta, the man who will push the button to blow up the buildings,  Firstpost reported.

The Supertech twin towers in Noida be demolished at exactly 2:30 pm using 3700 kilograms of explosives. The subsequent dust cloud is expected to take at least 10 minutes to settle. Vibrations are expected for a few minutes in a 30-metre radius.

At 3:30 pm, the NDRF team, along with Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) and several other authorities will arrive at the demolition site. 

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Timeline 

2004: The ambitious project was allotted land by the Noida authorities in Sector 93A. 

2005: The building plan was sanctioned by the authorities for the Supertech Emerald Court project. According to the original plan, the building of only 14 towers and nine floors was sanctioned which was supposed to have a shopping mall and garden.

2006: Supertech, the builders of the twin towers, leased 6556.51 square metres of land in June. In December 2006, one more tower with two more floors each and 689 total flats was added to the original plan.

2009: Another modification was added to the original plan, which included the twin towers named Apex and Ceyane, along with 24 floors.

2012: The authorities gave their approval for the revised plan and the height of the newly added twin towers was fixed at 40 floors. The Emerald Court Owners Residents Welfare Association (RWA) approached the Allahabad High Court in December this year with a complaint that it was illegal.

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2014: The Allahabad High Court ordered the demolition of the twin towers and said the structure was illegal in its verdict. The court also asked Supertech Limited, the builders, to refund the flat buyers with an interest of 14 per cent.

Following the Allahabad HC’s verdict, the NOIDA authority and Supertech Limited approached the Supreme Court, claiming the structure was legal.

2021: The top court upheld Allahabad HC’s verdict in his judgement on August 31 and ordered the demolition within three months. However, it was delayed by a year and was rescheduled on August 28 of the next year.

2022:  Demolition on August 28.