Noida: The evacuation of around 5,000 resident of the two housing societies near the soon-to-be-demolished twin towers of Supretech here has been completed, officials said Sunday morning.
The evacuation of residents of Emerald Court and ATS Village societies was scheduled to be completed by 7 am but took a little longer, police officials said.
The supply of cooking gas and power has also been discontinued in the two societies in Sector 93A in view of the implosion planned at 2.30 pm on Sunday, an official overseeing the evacuation exercise said.
"The evacuation has been completed. The cooking gas and electricity supplies have been discontinued. They will be resumed after security clearance post demolition later," a police officer told PTI .
Besides the residents, their vehicles and pets have also been moved out, the official added.
However, private security and some representatives of residents' group will stay within the societies till around 1 pm after which both premises would be totally vacant, the officer said.
The demolition of the two illegally built towers is scheduled for 2.30 pm.
Around 5,000 residents of Emerald Court and adjoining ATS Village societies in Sector 93A were told to vacate their premises by 7 am on Sunday, while also removing nearly 3,000 vehicles and taking away 150-200 pets, including cats and dogs, with them for the day.
Several of them left on Saturday itself, with some going to relatives' or friends' places in Delhi-NCR only while some driving out to Uttarakhand and Rajasthan on short vacations.
Following a go-ahead, gas and power supply will be restored in the adjoining buildings by 4 pm, and residents will be allowed back in by 5.30 pm.
NDRF team has also reached the spot
NDRF team in its final leg of preparations before the demolition begins in UP's Noida; canine warriors brought in as well
Buildings prepped for demolition
The two towers have been rigged with over 3,700 kg of explosives. Explosives have been inserted into nearly 7,000 holes in the pillars. 20,000 circuits have been set.
When detonated, the explosive charges have been set up in such a way that the towers will collapse straight down.
Some of the adjoining buildings are as close as 8 metres to the twin towers. There are others within a 12-metre radius. They have been covered by a special cloth to minimise dust penetration.
'100% confident'
The closest buildings next to twin towers are Aster 2 and Aster 3 of Emerald Court society which are just nine metres away. The demolition would be done in a manner so as not to cause any structural damages to other buildings, the officials said.
While nearby Noida-Greater Noida Expressway will be closed from 2.15 pm to 2.45 pm, the city will remain no fly zone for drones. The air space in one nautical mile radius above the blast will also remain briefly unavailable for flights during demolition time, according to Noida Authority.
All work related to placement of explosives and connecting them is already complete. The only work remaining is interconnecting the twin towers and placing a 100-metre-long cable from the structures to the exploder, from where the button would be pressed on Sunday, project officials said.
"Once last-minute checks are done and all teams get down from the buildings, the two buildings Apex and Ceyane, have to be inter-connected. After that a 100-metre-long cable would be run from the towers to the exploder to demolish the buildings," Edifice Engineering's project manager Mayur Mehta said on Saturday.
"Once we get the clearance from the police department that the exclusion zone is 100 per cent clear, then at 2.30 pm on Sunday we will press the button," he said.
Mehta said only six people, including three foreign experts, Indian blaster Chetan Dutta, a police officer and himself, will remain within the exclusion zone to push the button for the blast.
Asked how confident he was regarding safe demolition, Mehta told PTI: "100 per cent. I don't have any other word. We are 100 per cent confident."
(with niputs from PTI)
