Twin Tower Noida’s Demolition: A Complete Case Study

In 2004, Noida authorities allotted the Supertech Group with an area of ​​about 49000 square meters at Plot No 4, Sector 93A, Noida. The area was allotted for the construction of Emerald Court Group Housing Society. In June 2005, the construction layout was approved by the Noida Authorities. Later, in 2006, the Noida Authorities also sanctioned an additional area for the construction of shopping center and building blocks. As per the approved layout, the shopping center and building block were to be constructed on ground plus one floor and ground plus eleven floors respectively.

But after three years, in 2009, Nodia Authorities again approved the revised plan. As per the revised plan, Supertech wanted to construct two towers instead of shopping center and building block. As per approved plan, these two towers were of ground plus twenty four floors (G+24) and the approved height of towers was 66 meters. These two towers (tower number 16 and 17) were recognized as twin towers. Again in 2012, Noida Authorities approved Supertech to add more floors. As per revised plan, Supertech was allowed to make ground plus forty floors (G+40) for twin towers. As per revised plan of 2012, the proposed height of G+40 tower was 122 meters.

After approval of 122 meters high twin tower of Noida, residents of the Emerald Housing Society filed an appeal in Allahabad High court in 2012. Thereafter, listening to all the parties involved in the Twin Tower Noida case, High court ordered the demolition of Twin Tower Noida. The main issue of the demolition of twin towers was the horizontal distance of the twin towers with the existing tower-1. It was 9 meters. However, as per the Building Regulations 2010, the minimum horizontal distance between two towers should be 16 meters.

1. Parties Involved in Twin Tower Demolition Case

1.1 Supertech Limited (Supertech)

Supertech Group was founded in 1988. Supertech has its registered office in Delhi but it’s headquarter is in Gurgaon. It is a leading real estate developer company in India. Supertech has delivered some of the best projects like Emerald Court Sector 93, Noida and high end residential project in sector-34, Noida with seven star living facility and commercial hub of 700,000 sq. ft.

1.2 New Okhla Industrial Development Authority, Noida (The Authority)

As per the Uttar Pradesh Industrial Area Development Act, 1976, New Okhla Industrial Development Authority was established under section-3. The Noida Authority was established to look after the development of certain activities under the concerned area. 

1.3 Emerald Court Owner Resident Welfare Association (RWA) 

In 2004, Noida authorities had given land to Supertech for the development of a housing society in Noida Sector 93. The society was named as “Emerald Court Group Housing Society”. The residents of the society joined hands to form the Resident Welfare Association (RWA) as the residents got occupancy in 2009. In 2010, the RWA has registered with the Registrar of Societies. The RWA’s made their society laws on the basis of the Apartment Act 2010, Uttar Pradesh. After the formation of RWA, Supertech also recognized them.

2. The Allahabad High Court’s Judgment of Twin Tower Case

In December 2012, the RWA filed a case against the Noida authorities and the Supertech group in the Allahabad High Court for violation of various regulations as indicated:

1. Due to the increase in the height of the twin tower, the flow of air and the flow of light in Tower-2 was blocked.

2. With the height of the twin towers from 66 m to 121 m, the safety of the nearby towers was compromised as the horizontal distance between the two towers was less than 16 m.

3. The entire housing society is suffocating due to the increase in the height of the Twin Towers.

In the defense to the above regulations, the Supertech made the following argument in the Allahabad High Court:

Emerald Court Housing project was constructed in two stages. In first stage, 15 towers were constructed and in second stage the twin towers (tower-16 & tower-17) were constructed. The layout and plan of the twin towers were sanctioned by the Noida Authorities on 26^th November 2009. However, the new Building Regulation & U.P. Apartment act came into force in 2010. Hence, these new regulations were not applicable for the construction of the Twin Towers.

In March 2012, the last sanction was approved by the Noida Authorities and this sanction was related to increase in height to 40 storey’s. Also, the Supertech had bought remaining floor area from the Noida’s Authority. Ownership in first stage was given to occupants in 2008 and 2009. Supertech argued that first stage and second stage were altogether different activities. RWA of first stage occupants had nothing to do with second stage.

In the defense to the allegations made by RWA and Supertech, the Noida Authorities made the following argument in the Allahabad High Court:

The Noida authorities tried to justify all their actions and said that whatever they did was according to the law of the land. In addition, except for 16 meters horizontal distance between two structures, all the building laws were followed from time to time. Additionally, the necessity of horizontal distance between two structures was made obligatory later in 2010, though consent to construct the twin towers was conceded in 2009. Afterward, just the height of the structure was allowed to be expanded which wouldn’t affect the horizontal distance between the structures. 

One of the main issues selected by the Allahabad High Court was whether the authorization given by the Noida authorities in March 2012 was according to the U.P. Act 2010 and Building regulation act 2010. According to these guidelines the horizontal distance between the two structures must be 16 meters or more, while in fact it was just 9 meters.

2.1 Allahabad High Court Judgment

The Noida authorities had contended that the U.P. Act 2010 and Building regulation Act 2010 were not pertinent as the approval for development of the Twin Towers was conceded in 2009, and in 2012 consent was given exclusively to increase the height of the building.  

After analyzing the pleadings of the RWA, Noida Authorities and Supertech, HC told that the stand of the Supertech is absolutely not similar to the stand of the Noida Authorities. Because of the additional floor area that was purchased in 2011, the new layout map was approved by the Noida Authorities in 2012 for the Twin Tower construction. Thus, the Building Regulation Act 2010 must apply to the new layout.

The High Court had ordered the demolition of the Twin Towers. Also, ordered to take action against the erring officials of the Nodia authorities. The order of the High Court is as follows:

1. Noida Authorities shall demolish the twin towers (tower-16 and tower-17) within 4 months from the date of issue of HC’s order.

2. The cost of demolition of the Twin Towers and removal of the debris will be borne by Supertech. It is the responsibility of the Noida authorities to ensure, otherwise the Noida authorities will have to bear the expenses.

3. According to U.P. Apartments Act 2010, action shall be taken against Supertech and Noida Authority officials involved in this project. This will be done by a competent authority (as decided in accordance with the U.P. Apartments Act 2010) within three months from the date of issue of HC’s order.

4. Supertech has to refund all the money with 14% interest rate compounded annually to all persons who had booked apartments in Twin Towers. Supertech shall refund this money within four months after the date of publication of HC’s order.

3. The Supreme Court’s Judgment of Twin Tower Case

After Allahabad High Court’s judgment, Supertech went on to appeal in supreme court against the judgment of high court in 2014. After listening to all parties of twin tower case, the supreme court in its findings makes the following conclusions:

1. The land which was allotted to Supertech by the Nodia authorities is a constitutive work of only one plot.

2. The approval given by the Nodia authorities for the construction of Tower 16 and Tower 17 does not meet the minimum horizontal distance requirement.

3. Supertech’s claim that both Tower-1 and Tower-17 are facing dead ends and hence the minimum distance criteria will not be applicable, is a false claim as Tower-1 and Tower-17 are facing each other and are not dead-end sides.

4. Tower-16 and Tower-17 have been constructed without following fire safety norms.

5. Supertech had promised the residents of Tower-1 to construct a garden, which was also seen in the plan, approved in 2006. But in 2009, Supertech constructed Tower-16 and Tower-17 on the allotted garden space. This was against the UP-Apartments Act 2010 as the plan was modified without taking permission from the residents.

6. There was no separate construction of Tower-16 and Tower-17 under Phase-II. The site of both these towers was part of Phase-1. Therefore Tower-16 and Tower-17 should have been built after asking all the residents of Phase-1. But, Supertech did not take permission from the residents of the society and hence it is against the UP Apartment Act 2010.

3.1 Supreme Court Judgment

Supreme Court made the following Judgment in Twin Tower Case:

1. The decision given by the High Court on the demolition of Tower-16 and Tower-17, will remain affirmed.

2. Tower-16 and Tower-17 are to be demolished within 3 months after the date of publication of SC’s order.

3. Supertech will have to pay the cost to demolish Tower-16 and Tower-17. Noida authorities will take care of the safety of nearby structures and people at the time of demolition. Noida authorities shall consult their own experts and experts from Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Roorkee.

4. Demolition of Tower-16 and Tower-17 should be done under the supervision of CBRI. If CBRI is not able to handle this work, then Nodia authorities will have to nominate some other expert.

5. Along with the cost of demolition, the fees of experts will also have to be paid by Supertech.

6. Supertech will have to refund all the money to all the owners who bought the flats in Tower-16 and Tower-17. The interest rate will be 12% p.a. from the time the owners have deposited the money till the time money is refunded.

7. Supertech will have to pay Rs 2 crore to RWAs within a month after the date of publication of SC’s order. 

4. Building Regulations 2010

As per section 24.2.1.6 of Building regulation 2010, the horizontal distance between building blocks should be as follows:

The horizontal distance between two adjacent buildings should be between 6 m to 16 m, depending on the height of the building. The distance between buildings up to 18 m height should be at least 6 m. After a height of 18 m, for an additional 3 m height, the distance will increase by 1 m. But, the minimum distance requirement may be up to 16 meters. If the dead ends of two building blocks are facing each other than the minimum required distance should be 9 m and not 16 m.

5. Demolition Plan of Noida’s Twin Tower

The Noida’s Twin Towers were crushed through a ‘Controlled Collapse Mechanism‘, and that implies Twin Towers collapsed after explosives were decisively positioned and exploded with insignificant harm to the surrounding environment. The cycle behind the collapse incorporates the continuous debilitating of basic backings of the structure, i.e., eliminating the supports that assist the structure against the gravitation. This was accomplished by various explosives set inside the towers. Main supports of the structure are the columns. Hence, most of the explosives were placing on the columns. Generally, in lower floors, more explosive was placed than the upper floors to start the controlled breakdown of the structure.

The Controlled Collapse Mechanism was used in 1773 for the first time in Ireland to demolish the Trinity Cathedral. The explosive used in the demolition of Trinity Cathedral was 68 kg. After this, the Controlled Collapse Mechanism became famous for the demolition of bridges, buildings, tunnels, and plants.  However, in 2020, this technique was recently used in Kochi, India for demolishing four apartments constructed on the coastal line due to violating coastal regulations. 

Edifice engineering, a Mumbai based firm, partnered with South Africa’s Jet to carry out the demolition work of Twin Tower. The most time-consuming process in controlled implosion is to keep the chemical substance in the structure. For the collapse of twin tower, the arrangement of chemical substance required almost seven months. One month was spent in preparation and remaining six months were spent in preparation of site.

3700 kg of explosives were used to demolish the Twin Towers. Tower-16 had eleven primary floors and Tower-17 had ten primary floors. Explosives were put on the columns of all these primary floors. Whereas, 60% of the explosives were planted on the columns of the secondary floor of Tower 16 and 17.

The primary part utilized for the blast is the emulsion that has predominant quality to crush even hard rocks. Such emulsions are used for the underground structure construction. However, less amount of emulsion was used for the Twin Tower demolition because the structure didn’t require much quantity. Also, shock tubes were used to guide the blast wave to simulate the actual explosions. Electric detonators were used to trigger the explosives. Entire process of blasting took only ten second

6. Health Issues After the Demolition of Twin Towers

The following health problems have been observed in nearby residents health due to air pollution that occurred after the demolition of the Twin Towers of Noida:

1. Mild to moderate headache

2. Irritation in eyes, nose and skin occurred in most people.

3. Respiratory became a major issue and many residents in the vicinity developed sore throat, runny nose, nasal congestion and cough.

4. Some patients had shortness of breath and their SPO₂ level went to 92%.

5. Some patients reported fever and body aches.

6. Few cases of abdominal pain and nausea were reported.

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