KARACHI: No decision was taken on Monday on the modalities of demolition of Nasla Tower in Karachi on Supreme Court’s order as four out of five companies submitted their respective bids for manual demolition of the 15-storey building while a foreign firm offered to raze it via a controlled implosion blast.

Sources said that a meeting of the eight-member committee for demolition of Nasla Tower was convened at the office of the deputy commissioner (DC) of district East and discussed at length the bids and proposals furnished by four local and one foreign firms and the method and date of demolition of the tower.

Talking to Dawn, DC Asif Jan Siddiqui said that the committee deliberated upon the bids and decided to call the bidding companies on Wednesday (tomorrow) to take their respective presentations on the method and the time required for demolition. “We will definitely adopt the safest method for razing the building,” he added.

The committee was formed by Commissioner Iqbal Memon for awarding the contract with the DC-East as its head.

Four local companies have also applied for manual demolition of the 15-storey building

An offer of expression of interest was published in leading newspapers about demolishing the 15-storey residential building in the safest and quickest manner. The offer was issued by the Karachi Commissioner’s office.

The residential project Nasla Tower is built over 1,121 square yards on Plot No193-A in the Sindh Muslim Cooperative Housing Society or SMCHS at Sharea Faisal.

Experts said that a controlled detonation was not viable as it might also collapse the Nursery flyover, adjacent buildings and water and other utility pipelines.

Besides, they said, a controlled detonation was not possible because the building was located in a densely populated area with a heavy traffic flow.

According to the experts, the facility of detonation operation available in the country is used for mountains but “applause theory” was required to demolish Nasla Tower and such a facility is not available in Pakistan.

They said that the detonation blast was mostly used in mountainous areas.

Earlier, the Supreme Court Registry has issued a written verdict in the Nasla Tower case, ordering that controlled modern devices be used to demolish the high-rise building and ensure that there was no further damage to the sides during the demolition.

The court order said that this work should be completed in one week and the procedure prevailing in other countries for demolition of buildings should be observed.

The apex court also ordered that the cost of demolition of the building should be borne by the owner of Nasla Tower and if the owner did not pay, the commissioner should sell the land.

On Oct 26, the utility connections of Nasla Tower were disconnected on the orders of the Supreme Court.

Earlier on June 16, the apex court had rejected the builder’s request for review of the court order to demolish the Nasla Tower and ordered the demolition of the building.

Published in Dawn, November 2nd, 2021