Two buildings in Maradu flushed out in seconds : Watch video

Two of the four apartment buildings  in Maradu in Kochi were demolished in a controlled implosion on Saturday after the Supreme Court’s order in May last year for violating the Coastal Zone Regulation (CZR) norms.

Here’s how it conducted :

The two buildings in the Maradu apartment complexes, spread in at least 800,000 square feet area, were razed within seconds, in one of the largest demolition drives in the country involving residential buildings.

See the video :

#WATCH Kochi: Alfa Serene complex with twin apartment towers in Maradu also demolished.2 out of 4 illegal apartment towers have been demolished through controlled implosion,final round of demolition to take place tomorrow.Sec 144 of CrPC is enforced on land, air&water in the area pic.twitter.com/WsadhqPuDF

— ANI (@ANI) January 11, 2020

The first to come down like a pack of cards was the H20 Holy Faith complex, a 19-floor building with 91 apartments. Alfa Serene with 67 houses on 17 floors, 800 meters away, was the next to be demolished.

A portion of the H20 Holy Faith building fell in the backwaters as rubble of almost the height of a five-storey building settled on the ground.

Firemen used water cannons to control the dust and fumes which enveloped the whole Maradu apartment complexes’ area after the building came down.

Officials said the H20 Holy Faith complex was razed using 212.4kg of explosives at around 11:19am.

“The first explosion was successful,” Utkarsh Mehta, the managing director of the main contractor Edifice Engineering, said.

Explosives were placed in 1471 holes in the 70-metre high building, officials of Edifice Engineering said.

South Africa-based Jet Demolitions is the other big company involved in the demolition.

A special pooja invoking Lord Ganesha to remove all hurdles is being conducted to ensure smooth operation, said the companies involved in the operation.

Authorities have imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), which bans the assembly of more than four people at any place.

Police have tightened security in Maradu, on the outskirts of the port city of Kochi as top police and civil officials camped in the area.

Green activists said the demolitions will be a lesson for land encroachers who misuse water bodies. However, homeowners feel they are paying for “someone else’s sin”.

Many fear that the latest demolition drive will trigger a series of such actions in Kochi were violations of CRZ norms are rampant.

The remaining two buildings will be razed off tomorrow.