KOCHI, Jan 12:
One more illegal lakeside apartment complex here was demolished on Sunday using controlled implosion method, complying with a Supreme Court order.
The 55-meter high Jain Coral Cove, built in violation of Coastal Regulation Zone norms in Maradu Municipality, was brought down at around 11.03 am with the area in a 200 metre radius kept out of bounds for people and all kinds of traffic.
In a precise sequence, the over 350 kgs of explosives filled in the structures were blasted in a controlled manner at the end of the third warning siren and the concrete colossus came crumbling down in seconds, triggering mammoth ‘clouds’ of dust.
Just in a few seconds, the towering building, whose interior walls had been removed in pre-demolition work over the past weeks leaving it a concrete shell, became mounds of debris.
The stunning spectacle was witnessed by a large number of people who perched themselves on top of houses and other buildings in vantage points just outside the 200m radius evacuation zone even as police and district officials kept a vigil.
Residents in the neighbourhood moved out and Section 144 of CrPC come into force at 8 am in the evacuation zone ahead of the demolition to ensure there was no untoward incident.
With this, three of the four luxury complexes ordered to be demolished by the apex court for CRZ violations have been razed down. “It was a perfect implosion. Not a single debris have fallen in the lake,” Ernakulam District Collector S Suhas said after visiting the site along with city police commissioner Vijay Sakhare after the demolition. Sakhare said the operation was executed as planned. “It was an absolute success. No damage has happened to the building adjacent to the demolished one. And no harm to any human life or any animal life. No properties in adjoning area damaged,” the police officer said.
Another building of the same height will be demolished at 2 pm, marking the completion of implementation of the court order passed last year. On Saturday, two complexes — H2O Holy Faith and the twin towers of Alfa Serene — abutting the bakwaters were destroyed in the similar implosion method in which explosives filled in the structures blasted in a controlled manner.
Mumbai-baed Edifices Engineering carried out the explosion with the assistance of experts from South Africa-based Jet Demolition. A total of 343 waterfront flats were built in the complexes, violating the Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The Supreme Court had in September 2019 directed demolition of the apartment complexes within 138 days after the Kerala government submitted the time line for carrying out the operation. (PTI)
The owners of the flats, for whom the apex court had ordered an interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh, had vacated the premises in October first week after a last ditch protest to prevent the demolition ended in vain. (PTI)
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