Happy residents in fear of unknown

Noida: Demolition of Supertech's twin towers here has been a major talking point among residents of neighbouring Emerald Court and ATS Village societies who are happy with the scheduled razing but also gripped with the fear of the unknown.

The nearly 100-metre tall towers, which came up illegally in Emerald Court's premises, will become India's tallest structures to be safely demolished by implosion technique in pursuance of a Supreme Court order, project officials said.

Around 5,000 residents of the two societies will be the most impacted when the structures go down at 2.30 pm on August 28, leaving behind a whopping 55,000 tonnes of debris.

Emerald Court's Rajesh Rana (63), whose flat in Aster 2 tower is just nine metres from the twin towers, said these days the demolition is the only topic of discussion for them and it has been like this since the last few weeks.

"Of course there is anxiety among people but we are more happy than worried about the demolition. It's a result of a long struggle for us,” Rana told PTI, expecting the demolition process to be successful.

ATS' Chaturvedi, a retired central government bureaucrat said, “Considering that it's an unprecedented event with not much document evidence of such demolitions except for the Maradu complexes in Kerala, there is a fear of the unknown among residents.” According to officials overseeing the evacuation preparations, all residents of Emerald Court and ATS Village in Sector 93A, along with more than 150 pets, will have to vacate their homes by 7 am while the security staff of these societies will also be moved out latest by 12 pm on Sunday.

Around 2,700 vehicles from both the societies will also be removed.

The residents would be allowed to return after 4 pm only after safety clearance from officials.

Uday Bhan Singh Teotia (75), the president of Emerald Court residents' association said, “The adjoining Parsvnath Srishti, Parsvnath Prestige and Eldeco Utopia have offered to provide space in their community clubs to anyone from our societies who want to go there for the demolition period.” While some residents are considering the compassionate offer, a large number of them are planning to move to their relatives' homes in Delhi, Noida, Gurugram, and Ghaziabad even as some have planned to go on a vacation to places like Uttarakhand and Rajasthan among others, ATS Village residents' group president Atul Chaturvedi told PTI.

Sabiqa Abbas of Emerald Court said the anxiety among residents is palpable and been part of their daily discussions of late.

“The support of our residents' groups and flow of information regarding the do's and don'ts for the evacuation on August 28 has been good,” she said, standing on her ground-floor apartment's balcony with the soon-to-be-demolished towers in sight.

She and her family members, including her husband, an infant baby and parents-in law, will be going to their relatives' place in Noida on August 28.