Breaking it wrong

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 21: The development authority’s enforcement wing has raised objections to the use of old machines to raze high-rise buildings by a private party that had been contracted to carry out the work using modern technology to ensure quick demolition.

Following the complaint from its enforcement team, the engineering department of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) is going to review the work of the firm with which it had entered into an agreement in October to carry out demolition of multi-storey buildings.

BDA engineering member Jaymangal Nayak said the firm had been chosen following a presentation it had made. “We received complaints from our enforcement wing. We have asked our enforcement department officials to submit their report following which we will take action against the firm,” said Nayak.

While the BDA was planning to use cement-concrete breaker for faster demolition of high-rises, the private firm used the old and less-effective needle-breaker compressor that takes more time.

The Unit-IV based private company was deployed for the first time to demolish a three-storey building at Rasulgarh after its agreement on October 24. Though the enforcement officials wanted the job to be done in a day, the private firm took three days and even then, could break only certain portions of the building.

Sources in the development agency said the private party used the same machine that was deployed by the BDA earlier. Interestingly, the agency rented the machine from the same suppliers who had earlier supplied the machine to the BDA.

“We were hiring this machine for Rs 750 an hour and it was costing us around Rs 50,000 for bringing down a building. But, this firm demands Rs 230 per sqft using the same machine. This will work out to around Rs 11 lakh for demolishing the building where the exercise is currently being undertaken. That appears to be a lot of wasteful expenditure,” said an official.

Besides, the private party wants permission of the enforcement wing for surveying a building earmarked for demolition at least seven days ahead of undertaking the exercise. But this would mean that the plans of the enforcement wing would become public much before they wanted it.

The authorities tied up with the firm to deploy the advanced cement concrete breaker that can easily cut into concrete structures after police delayed permission for using the implosion technology for which the BDA had earlier signed a pact with an Indore-based firm.

The cement concrete breaker is a costly machine that uses a circular saw and takes less time in pulling down highrises. The machine uses vibration and cutting technology to get through reinforced cement structures.

The tardy process of the demolition drive had irked many BDA officials who want to pull down over 5,900 unauthorised structures in the city.

However, officials of the private firm said they were working following the terms of the agreement.