A controlled explosion leveled the two high-rise apartment towers in India after India's Supreme Court ordered them to be demolished for building violations. The towers are India's tallest buildings to have been razed to the ground.
Cloud of dust rises as twin high-rise apartment towers are razed to ground in Noida, outskirts of New Delhi, India, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022. The demolition was done after the country's top court declared them illegal for violating building norms. The 32-story and 29-story towers, constructed by a private builder were yet to be occupied and became India's tallest structures to be razed to the ground.
The demolition was completed within seconds but followed a 12-year court battle between residents in the area and the builder, Supertech Limited. Ahead of the demolition, the towers were surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and special covers to block dust from the approximately 88,000 tons of debris that would be generated, officials said. Disposing all of the debris will take three months.
Mehta said 3,500 kilograms of explosives were drilled into thousands of holes in the columns and shears of the towers. Experts used the waterfall method of demolition in which one story collapses on the next.