Steel ropes, earthmovers, crane...‘leaning tower of Munirka’ defies all for two days

NEW DELHI: While you were asleep, the ‘leaning tower of Munirka’ might have collapsed in a heap, but it’s just as likely to be on its feet. Till late on Saturday, evacuated residents, neighbours and civic engineers were on tenterhooks, awaiting its fall. The tilt at the top of the 6-storey building had increased to 1.5 feet, from 10 inches two days earlier, but, like a tranquilised bull elephant, it was still teetering.
Work to demolish the building began in earnest on Friday, a day after the tilt was first noticed. Municipal engineers tried to pull it down with steel ropes, earthmovers and a light crane. When that failed, they brought in a heavy-duty crane on Saturday, to make it fall towards Gangnath Marg.
“We are trying to break the columns towards Gangnath Marg, to minimise the damage to the surrounding buildings,” a senior municipal engineer supervising the demolition said. “The building is loose now, and it might give way on Saturday night or early on Sunday.”
Local conditions have made the task difficult. Since the building is in a crowded cluster, its fall is bound to damage others around it, said an engineer. “We are trying to minimise the damage radius, but it is impossible to save all the surrounding buildings. Unplanned growth has made our task very challenging.”
The engineers didn’t have many options. Sending in labourers with sledgehammers was out of the question as the building had become unstable and could have come down on them. Using explosives was also ruled out because it could cause extensive damage to other buildings.
To prevent loss of life, the demolition team had evacuated about 100 residents of the adjacent buildings on Thursday. The area near the north gate of JNU was also barricaded for the safety of passersby.