The Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) on Tuesday finally began clearing debris of the Indian Navy's Kiran MK-II trainer aircraft which crashed into a building on March 3 to pave way for demolishing the structure too.
Since the building's structural stability is yet to be assessed, the extent of demolition of the building is still unknown.
“Only when the assessment is done, we will decide on the extent of demolition to be done,” a senior official said.
The Navy plane crashed while performing aerobatics during the inauguration of India Aviation 2010 killing both the pilots.
All these days the building which turned out to be an illegal structure was off limits to its owner and residents.
Notice served
Few days ago Cantonment's Chief Executive Officer C. Ravindra served the demolition notice to the owner L. Ramesh and on Sunday, Indian Navy officials took possession of the flight data recorder embedded in the debris.
On Tuesday, Cantonment workers started to dismantle the cell tower and the water tank under the supervision of Assistant Engineer K.M. Devraj. A fire tender was also stationed in the area to tackle any emergency during the clearing works. “Once the cell tower is removed, demolition works will commence with full force from Wednesday,” said Mr. Devraj.
Care needed
With structures in the area present in close proximity to each other, officials said that the demolition would be taken up carefully to ensure that neighbouring buildings were not damaged in the process.
Mr. Ramesh, the owner, who had been facing a harrowing time ever since the crash, appeared more relaxed following an assurance by the Union Minister of State for Defence M.M. Pallam Raju that the issue of compensation would be looked into on ‘moral grounds'.
