Jet Demolitions of South Africa , a premier demolition company in Africa was hired to demolish four Apartment Complexes in Maradu, Kochi in Kerala. in one of the largest demolition drives in the country involving residential buildings, Edifice Engineering, a Mumbai based company and Jet Demolitions of South Africa successfully brought down two of the four apartment complexes in Maradu in a controlled implosion today. The Demolition followed the Supreme Court’s order in May last year for violating the Coastal Zone Regulation (CZR) norms. The court had passed the order based on a report of a three-member committee. The committee reported that the buildings were built, in an area which was already notified as a CRZ where construction was prohibited. Green activists hope that the current demolition will be a prelude to more such actions and will serve as a lesson for land encroachers who misuse water bodies. In a place like Kerala, where violations of CRZ norms are rampant, many more such demolitions are expected.
The two buildings in the Maradu apartment complexes, spread in at least 800,000 square feet area, were razed within seconds. A 19-floor building with 91 apartments and another one with 67 houses on 17 floors, 800 meters away, were razed to ground like a pack of cards, without causing any causality to the neighbourhood buildings. The rubble that settled on the ground stood at a height of a five-storey building. On Sunday, two more 17-storeyed residential building with 122 flats and 40 flats—will be demolished.
