Three days after the historic demolition of Supertech's illegal twin towers, while a majority of the residents of Emerald Court and ATS Village have returned, life is yet to get restored to complete normalcy, claimed the residents. While Edifice Engineering, the company responsible for pulling down the towers, said that the geotextile clothes covering the adjoining towers of Supertech Emerald Court and ATS Village have been completely removed, the residents shared they are avoiding going out fearing pollution.
"A part of the twin tower collapsed at the place where we used to park our cars. The debris inside ATS premises has disturbed the parking space of five cars. We are avoiding going out as we still feel a heaviness in the air," said Rajiv Srivastava, a resident of ATS Village.
Supertech Emerald Court president UBS Teotia said that all residents in the society have returned and cleaning work was completed on August 30. "Some glass windows have been damaged and their repairing is underway," said Teotia.
Residents of ATS Village said that while around 90 per cent of families have returned, only those yet to come back have either gone out of station or to their close relatives' homes.
"We were a bit scared about the pollution part. So, instead of staying nearby, we came to my parent's home in Delhi. We wanted the air to be a bit clearer before returning. We will go back on Saturday, so that kids can join school from Monday," said Meghna Sharma (name changed), a resident of ATS Village.
Meanwhile, Edifice Engineering said that repair work of shattered glasses has begun and is likely to be completed in a week.
"The work to repair broken glass windows has started. Edifice will bear the repairing cost as any claim of less than Rs 25 lakh will not be considered by the insurance company," said Mayur Mehta, Project Manager, Edifice.
Edifice Engineering had taken an insurance cover of Rs 100 crore for nearby buildings and another of Rs 2.5 crore for a GAIL gas pipeline. Mehta said that minutes after the blast on August 28, GAIL had confirmed that there was no damage to its pipelines.
On the other hand, the Noida police raised a bill of Rs 64 lakh to be borne by Edifice. "We have sent the bill to Edifice Engineering. The bill was handed over to Mayur Mehta and sent on the mail ID of Edifice Engineering. We are waiting for their reply," said Ram Badan Singh, DCP, Noida Police. The bill was raised for the deployment of police personnel and vehicles for secure transportation of explosives from Palwal to Noida.
On the other hand, Mehta said that they are yet to receive the bill and a decision regarding whether to pay the bill or not will be taken up by the Edifice management.
When asked about action to be taken by the police if Edifice refuses to pay the bill, Singh said, "If they refuse to pay, then they will have to explain their grounds for refusal as well. A final decision will be taken only after receiving a formal communication from Edifice."
Meanwhile, Edifice had started segregating scrap from the concrete, said Mehta. Edifice expects to earn around Rs 15 crore by selling the scrap extracted from the twin towers’ debris.