Joshimath crisis: Who is Debi Prasanna Kanungo? Scientist who demolished Noida tower asked to raze hotels

In Joshimath, the demolition of the Hotel Mount View and Malari Inn, which were deemed "unsafe" and a threat to nearby buildings and lives, has begun. The Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), based in Roorkee, will be in charge of the demolition of Mount View and Malari Inn starting the next week.

Head of CBRI's expert team Dr. Debi Prasanna Kanungo, who is a chief scientist, will be supervising the demolition. Under Kanungo's direction, Supertech Twin Tower in Noida was demolished with explosives last year. In subsidence-hit Joshimath, Hotel Mount View and Malari Inn have developed cracks under it. Kanungo, a Senior Principal Scientist in the Geotechnical Engineering Division at CBRI, will demolish these two structures using a unique technique.

The Uttarakhand government has given Kanungo the task of tearing down hotels in Joshimath because of his extensive experience. The CBRI team will take down the hotels and evaluate the damage in addition to razing them. Additionally, this group will create a prefabricated hut for short-term rehabilitation. The group is currently assessing the damaged structures. The demolition of them might take 7 to 10 days.

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Who is Dr. Debi Prasanna Kanungo?

Kanungo, who was born on June 16, 1967, earned his BSc in Geology from Utkal University in Odisha and his MTech in Applied Geology from the University of Roorkee. After that, he completed his PhD in Earth Sciences at IIT Roorkee. In addition to this, he has attended numerous conferences abroad. He is regarded as an authority on engineering geology and preventing landslide disasters. On this topic, he has published a lot of research papers.

Demolition of Noida’s Twin Tower

Last year, under his direction, the Supertech Twin Tower in Noida's Sector-93A was demolished in August. In just 9 seconds, the entire building was demolished using more than 3,500 kg of gunpowder. The demolition was accomplished using the explosion technique.

For its monitoring, his team had invested in 2 crore rupees worth of instruments. Having worked in the landslide-related field for 21 years, Kanungo has a great deal of experience. In 2010–2011, he received the CSIR Raman Research Fellowship. He received this honor for his investigation into the causes of rain-induced landslides.

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