[EN IMAGES] Two huge 30-storey buildings collapse in India

Two 100-meter-high apartment buildings were demolished on the outskirts of New Delhi on Sunday, in an event broadcast live on TV channels.

The destruction of these two 100-meter-high “twin towers” in Noida, where there is a forest of similar concrete structures, is a rare example of the authorities’ hard-line attitude towards developers and corrupt officials.

The 32 floors of Apex and 29 of Siani, which together house nearly a thousand apartments that had never been inhabited during nine years of legal wrangling, collapsed in a matter of seconds amid a huge cloud of dust.

Local media reported that the towers collapsed within seconds after detonating 3,700 kilograms of explosives in the largest demolition to date in India.

Thousands of people and stray dogs had to be evacuated before the explosion.

Initial reports said there were no injuries or damage to nearby buildings.

The Indian media reported the smallest details of this demolition, in particular the number of holes dug to place the IEDs (9642) and the amount of debris generated (80 thousand tons).

Over the past two decades, India has experienced a construction boom accompanied by corruption among elected officials, civil servants and powerful builders.

Real estate developers often circumvent building, planning, and environmental regulations, and usually get away with it.

Suburbs of big cities like Bombay, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore have become traps for middle-class buyers who invest in projects that are never completed or face legal disputes.

In Delhi, on the outskirts of Greater Noida and Noida – where the towers were demolished on Sunday – builders are estimated to have abandoned more than 100 apartment towers, making these areas look like ghost towns.