Around 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday, retired government official Chandrasekhar saw his son and daughter off to work and made his way to the nearby Jai Maruthi Mahal along with his grandson in Moulivakkam, where one of the twin 11-storeyed structures was being prepared for demolition using controlled explosion.
Two years ago, Mr. Chandrasekhar had just moved into the neighbourhood, when the other building, built by Prime Sristi Housing Pvt Ltd, collapsed after heavy rains in June, killing 61 people, mainly construction workers. The government decision to pull down the building and the denouement today left him relieved.
“We lived with the fear that this structure too would collapse suddenly,” said Mr. Chandrasekhar, who lives less than 100 yards away from the building.
His was one among the 100-odd families who were asked to move out temporarily until the explosion was carried out.
Residents in the vicinity of the building have had a difficult couple of years. Middle-aged Rukmini, who lives in a house on the same street, said her tenants had moved out fearing another collapse. “The collapse two years ago also damaged the neighbouring buildings. Everyone was worried it and many people moved out, not wanting to risk their lives,” she said.
She said the officials in charge of the demolition were courteous and gave them advance notice multiple times. “They also gave us a sense of how the demolition would be done and assured us that there wouldn’t be any damage to our houses and life would soon be back to normal,” she added.
Officials of the Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority (CMDA) said the people were brought to the marriage hall in vans and buses. The officials had also arranged food and water.
The much-anticipated explosion, which was originally scheduled to take place between 2 p.m and 4 p.m., was postponed by three hours. Most families had assumed that they would be home by evening, but that was not to be.
In preparation, the police had blocked roads leading up to the explosion site from noon.
Around 4 p.m., hundreds of people began waiting on the road to watch the demolition of the building, forcing the police to drive them away from the site due to safety issues. A new deadline was fixed for 5 p.m.
With officials missing that deadline too, vehicles began to pile up on smaller streets, putting the traffic police in a spot. Many children, who had been restricted to the marriage hall since morning, began wailing and were becoming restless.
Selvakumar, a father of two, was already thinking about how he might have to spend the night at the hall if the demolition was postponed. “We have been here since morning and haven’t got much information. Initially, I had been told I would not have to move since I lived on the third street. But today, they asked me to leave,” he said around 6.45 p.m.
His fears of a long night, fortunately, didn’t come true.
Within minutes, there was a fairly loud bang accompanied by slight tremor. And it was over, in a matter of less than five seconds.
