Kochi: Almost a week ahead of the planned court-ordered razing of four residential towers at Maradu here in Kerala, one of the two private companies entrusted with the controlled demolition has submitted a corrected version of the application it had earlier submitted to the Petroleum and Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO) to overcome a procedural glitch.
Edifice Engineering Company is set to submit the new set of application Friday itself as the dates for the demolition have been set for January 11 and 12. This is being done to rectify the faults in the previously submitted application.
The Mumbai-based company could not submit fresh documents on Thursday as it was a holiday for the offices of the Kerala Government in view of Mannam Jayanthi.
The four high-rises that will be demolished are H20 Holyfaith, Jain Coral Cove, Golden Kayaloram and Alfa Serene. Edifice had bagged the contract to demolish the first three buildings and the latest paperwork is over these. (Vijay Steel of Chennai is the other firm and it will carry out the demolition of the latter one.)
Supreme Court had ordered for the demolition of all the four buildings as they were built violating the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) norms. They are among the 400 properties built on the coastal zone of Kochi's Maradu area and found violating the laws.
Through its order dated, September 27, 2019, the apex court had asked the state government to demolish all apartments which violated coastal regulation zone norms at Maradu.
PESO has to give the final approval for carrying out the controlled explosion to raze the buildings. Deputy Chief Controller of explosives Dr R Venugopal said that the demolition process would be given the nod once the defects in the applications were rectified.
Owing to the defective documents, PESO has also not given sanction for the demolition of the first property, Holy Faith H2O, which is set for that would be brought down. The time set for the explosion at Holy Faith H2O is 11 am on January 11. (It will be at 11.30am on January 11 at Alfa Serene. On January 12, Jain Coral Cove would be flattened at 11am and Golden Kayaloram at 2pm.)
Dr Venugopal said that explosives would be planted in Holy Faith H2O soon after getting the overall sanction for demolition. This work is likely to begin on Friday afternoon itself.
As reported earlier about 650 kg explosives have already reached the state and are now kept in a godown at Angamaly. More would be brought any time. Other items for the process such as the cable to connect the explosives and the fuse have also been brought in.
Once the explosives are brought to the site from the storeroom, no one will be allowed to come to the vicinity of the properties.
Meanwhile, a technical committee is set to meet on Friday to allay the apprehensions of those who live in the neighbourhood of the properties that are to be demolished. Local Self-Government Minister A C Moideen has asked sub-collector Snehil Kumar Singh to address the fears of the residents.
