The Bhopal municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday razed a dilapidated overhead water tank at Sonagiri. The action was taken under the supervision of three explosive experts.
Three explosive experts completed the task after three hours of preparation using 10 kilograms of explosives. Sharad Sarvate of Indore, Ajay Katkar of Nagpur and Mahesh Patidar of Bhopal were involved in the operation.
After the overhead water tank at Sai Baba Nagar had collapsed in the year 2012, Structure Engineer B Kameshwar Rao of Building and Research Centre, Roorkee had inspected all the overhead water tanks in the city and Sonagiri overhead water tank was marked as dangerous and was recommended to be demolished.
Another overhead water tank at Bharat Nagar has also been marked as dangerous.
The Sonagiri tank was more than 40 years old and was one of the highest tanks. Experts paid special attention on razing the overhead water tank in a straight line and made the planning accordingly.
The surroundings of the overhead water tank was densely populated and to ensure proper and safe demolition City Superintendent of Police (CSP) DS Dayal handled the security.
SHO of Piplani and Govindpura police stations were present to assist Dayal. The traffic was blocked for around two hours to avoid any mishap.
Taking lesson from the past incident in the year 2012 when few people were injured while a water overhead tank was razed, administration was extra cautious this time.
In charge of water works zone 13 CK Dave said that taking precautionary steps the house owners near the overhead water tank were issued notices three days ago to alert the residents and take security measures.
Warnings were issued using PA system from 10 am and before the demolition the residents were evacuated. Earlier the demolition was scheduled on Wednesday but the arrangements by BMC were not completed due to which the demolition was postponed.
After Sonagiri overhead water tank, tanks at Shahjehanabad and 1100 quarters would be demolished, for which the arrangements are already being made by the authorities.