India’s Supreme Court ruled last year that the builders of the two towers had violated a number of critical construction rules by ordering the buildings to be razed to the ground. More than 3,700 kilograms (8,100 pounds) of explosives will be used to demolish the buildings, known as Apex and Ceyane, located at the edge of a busy highway connecting India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh with the capital. The towers were covered in white plastic sheets as police gathered around the area and sealed off arterial roads in preparation for the operation, local television images showed. People living in the surrounding area will have to evacuate by early Sunday morning and will be allowed to return to their homes five hours after the demolition is complete. Despite rampant illegal construction in Indian cities, demolitions of large buildings are rare, and locals living near the site said they fear damage to their property from the force of the blasts or air pollution from the dust.
