‘We were crying afterwards’: Man who pressed button in twin tower demolition
The Supertech twin tower demolition will go down in India’s history as one of the most significant events as it was the biggest controlled explosion to bring down the illegal structures in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Evidently, the man who pressed the button and caused 3,700kg of explosives to burst, told reporters that after the demolition he along with four other people tasked with the blast went to the site and began crying out of sheer relief and joy.
Speaking with reporters, Dutta said he and his team members did not utter a single word to one another once the warning siren for the demolition was sounded.
“I lift my head to take a look at the twin structures coming down right after the button was pressed. When everything was razed to the ground, my team and I did not wait for the cloud of dust and smoke to settle. We rushed to the demolition site to check the nearby housing societies of Emerald Court and ATS Village.
Dutta said the demolition plan went according to the prediction and plan, and called it “100 per cent successful”. He added that no damage was caused to the nearby highrises, though Dutta mentioned a compound wall of ATS Village suffering a minor crack of three to four metres due to the demolition.
“Everything is safe and went as per our plan,” Dutta told news agency ANI.
An official of Edifice Engineering, the company that carried out the demolition of the illegal structures as ordered by the Supreme Court, Dutta further stated that he and his team were only 70 metres away from the twin towers when the demolition happened – as opposed to 250 metres directed to others.
The official said being a professional in this field, they are used to being in such close proximity during such demolition events.
“The domilition was 100% succesful. It took 9-10 seconds for the entire building to demolish. There were 10 people in my team, 7 foreign experts and 20-25 people from Edifice Engineering,” Dutta was quoted as saying by ANI.
The demolition resulted in the area being covered with smoke and dust, and mountain of debris. Smokes guns deployed by the Noida Authority are spraying water droplets to clear the air as per visuals shared online. Cleaning of debris has also commenced, with CEO of Noida Authority Ritu Maheshwari saying residents of Emerald Court and ATS Villages will be permitted to enter their homes after 6.30pm. Nearly 5,000 residents were vacated earlier in the day ahead of the demolition.
