The first controlled demolition activity using explosives in one of the illegal structures in the Greater Hyderabad region turned out to be only partially successful.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) decided to use implosion technology to raze an unauthorised five-storied structure which had come up near Sunnam Cheruvu lake in Guttala Begumpet near Madhapur. However, upon detonation, the building, instead of collapsing like a pack of cards, tilted to one side precariously with little damage to upper floors.
On Monday morning, the GHMC officials and workers from different circles, police officials and the contractor, who was entrusted with the work, had reached the site. The planting of dozens of commercial explosives in every column of the structure took more than the estimated time. With the help of delay detonators, the green signal for the implosion was given around 3 pm.
Even as a number of local residents recorded the scenes on their phones, the shrapnel of construction materials flew in the air. The impact of the blasting did not give the desired results as only the ground floor was completely damaged while the first floor was partially affected.
Soon after detonation, Mayor of GHMC B. Rammohan, who was present at the site, said the implosion was “75% success” since they could conduct the experiment without any damage to the surroundings. They were convinced that this technology could be used in the future too as using manpower for demolishing high-rise structures could be time-consuming and expensive.
Contractor Srikant Vairagare, Managing Director of Uttam Blastech, blamed an adjacent structure for not being able to execute the work with perfection. He said they planted the explosives on only one side of the ground, first and second floors since they did not want any damage to the adjoining structure.
A technical team from the JNTU headed by Registrar and Civil Engineering professor, Ramana Rao, visited the site and asked the officials to re-attempt the implosion in the next few days after following a set of recommendations.
