The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to extend the deadline for demolition of Supertech's 40-storey twin towers at Noida, from May 22 to August 28, after it was informed that the test blast revealed that the structure was much stronger than anticipated.
A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and P.S. Narasimha agreed to extend the deadline for demolition of twin towers following submissions from counsel representing the Interim Resolution Professional (IRP) and also considering a communication by the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI) Director, dated May 11, that the demolition should be deferred to August 28.
The top court asked the Noida authority, which was represented by senior advocate Ravindra Kumar, to file a status report after convening a meeting of all stakeholders after it was informed that Edifice Engineering, which carried out a test blast, found out that the structure was much stronger than anticipated.
As counsel representing the IRP said the suggestion of deferring the blast of twin towers is based on experts' opinion, advocate Gaurav Agarwal, amicus curiae in the matter, submitted that the top court may consider extending the deadline for demolition and a status report should be filed in July.
The top court was informed that 49 per cent of demolition work has been completed so far, and the agency tasked to carry out demolition, wanted a larger quantity of explosives.
At the outset the bench did not agree with extending the deadline, saying: "Why need three months... attempts to delay."
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However, after counsel for parties persuaded it by citing the experts' opinion, the bench agreed to extend the deadline.
The top court had ordered the demolition of Supertech 40-story twin towers at Noida in August last yead.
