Pune: Heavy rain may delay razing of Chandni Chowk overpass

PUNE: Heavy rainfall, as indicated by the Met department, could again delay the demolition of the Chandni Chowk overpass scheduled at 2am on October 2, senior officials of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said on Thursday.

"Moderate spells of rain are not expected to affect the demolition plan, but heavy rainfall might lead to a problem.

Though the blasting process might not be affected, heavy spells could lead to safety issues. We are in touch with all the agencies and monitoring the situation," Sanjay Kadam , the NHAI Pune project director, told TOI.

Officials with Edifice Engineering, which will carry out the overpass demolition, said water gets accumulated in the holes dug up on the structure for setting up explosives during heavy rainfall. "In such a situation, water has to be drained out of the holes, leading to delays. Presently, the work is going on in full force to ensure that all the safety measures are in place," Chirag Chedda, partner, Edifice, told TOI.

Another NHAI official said a geotextile fabric was being wrapped around the whole structure. "The fabric is mainly to ensure that the debris of the structure doesn't spread and the area around it is protected against dust. Also, the wrapping will protect the structure and the holes from water. The wrapping was done on the Noida twin towers too, before they were demolished. As of now, the plan stands as per schedule," he said.

The district administration late on Thursday evening said preparations for the explosion were at last stage.

The demolition was to happen initially between September 10 and September 13, as per the instructions of CM Eknath Shinde.

However, it was delayed and the NHAI officials had blamed the rain for it. Now, the demolition date and time has been finalized, a traffic plan has also been released by the police and necessary preparations are on. The forecast of the IMD over the next few days indicates generally cloudy skies and light to moderate rainfall. However, it has been said the rainfall activity was expected to increase from Friday.

With the administration instructing establishments within a radius of 200 metres of the overpass to evacuate by October 1 evening, owners of some commercial establishments said no written order had been received.

"They have told us orally about it. We have had to cancel some bookings because of it. Fresh bookings for October 1 are not being accepted," a representative of Hotel Viva Inn, which is located in the blast radius, told TOI.