More than 150 flats in two apartment complexes in Maradu, a small municipality in Kerala’s Kochi, will be razed shortly today in one of the largest demolition drives in the country involving residential buildings.
The police
The Maradu apartment complexes, spread on at least 800,000 square feet, will be brought down after the Supreme Court in May last year ordered the demolition of four residential buildings after several rounds of litigation.
Two more complexes will be razed on Sunday in the first such exercise in India for violating the Coastal Zone Regulation (CZR) norms.
“We are ready for the blast,” sub-collector Snehil Kumar, a young Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer appointed to oversee demolition, said.
Officials said the 19-floor H20 Holy Faith complex, which includes 91 apartments, will be the first to be razed using 212.4kg of explosives at 11am in a controlled implosion.
Alfa Serene with 67 houses on 17 floors will be the next to be demolished.
Explosives have been placed in 1471 holes in the 70-metre high building and officials of Edifice Engineering, the main contractor, said the rubble will be restricted within the 10-metre radius. South Africa-based Jet Demolitions is the other big company involved in the demolition.
At least 26,400-tonne rubble, as high as a six-storey building, will accumulate after the explosion. The second building will be pulled down after that if everything goes according to plan.
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.
On Sunday, two 17-storeyed residential buildings—Jain Coral Cove with 122 flats and Golden Kayaloram with 40 flats—will be demolished.
According to experts, the last big demolition drive was in Tamil Nadu’s Chennai in 2016 when an 11-floor building was pulled down.
