Project brief:	Design, Manufacture, Supply, and Construction of Pre-Engineered Steel Building (PEB) for manufacturing of turbines, generators and auxiliaries
Location:	Sanand, Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Client:	Alstom Bharat Forge Power Ltd.
Steel Fabricator:	Kirby Building Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

Alstom Bharat Forge Power Ltd. (ABFPL), the joint venture company of France's Alstom and Kalyani Group's Bharat Forge, is setting up one of the largest integrated facilities for manufacturing of power equipment - turbines, generators and auxiliaries required for supercritical power plants. This project is first of its type for Kirby Building Systems India which has leveraged its brand name in entering the high potential Indian Power & Power Equipment sector that mostly considers Structural Steel for their building requirements.

The project involves more than 6,800 MT of steel and is spread over an area of 39,110 sqm. Kirby India was chosen for constructing the factory building after a rigorous evaluation process which spanned across all the departments. The company bagged this project against very stiff competition and was selected among all the PEB vendors based on its expertise in executing a wide range of projects across India. This project further strengthens Kirby India's determination to support the country's infrastructure growth and lays the roadmap for other players in the industry to enter the high potential Power and Power Equipment sector.

Fabrication

This factory is designed by Kirby India as per IS 800 standards and is divided into four bays – Stator Bay, Generator Shop, Rotor Shop, and Machine Shop. The building is unsymmetrical in nature with a height of 26m and consists of very heavy column sections which are 1.8m wide. The building consists of EOT cranes in each of the bay - two numbers of 20 MT in Stator Bay, two numbers of 150 MT in Machine Shop, one number of 200 MT in Rotor Shop and one number of 500 MT crane in Generator Shop. This is for the first time in the country's history that such a heavy crane is being installed in a PEB, and Kirby India being a leader in the PEB industry has once again taken this lead. This in itself signifies that Kirby India is capable of doing any type of PEB project with varying types of buildings and enter unexplored areas, thereby making inroads for other PEB players and widening the scope for the industry as a whole.

This 500 MT crane is installed at a height of 19 meters and there are separate columns provided for this crane apart from the columns for the building. The crane is supported on a tapered shaped crane beam which in itself weighs more than 50 MT, length of 24 m, and depth of 4.5 m. The supporting columns are provided with 350 diameter pipe bracings for transfer of crane load to the foundation. The crane is further provided with hand rails, chequered plates, and walkways.

The building is covered with double skin Kirby Wall profile and double skin Kirby Standing Seam roofing profile. The roof is further provided with 50 mm thick rockwool insulation to contain the heat and other roofing accessories such as polycarbonate sheet, roof curbs, turbo ventilators, etc.

The entire structure was fabricated in-house with very high efficiency and passing through various processes and systems. Successful execution of the project enabled the company to showcase its engineering, manufacturing, and execution capabilities. All such projects, whether big or small, require not only superior design but also excellent project management. Kirby India is capable of manufacturing such complex structures which consists of very heavy sections that require skilled manpower to follow all the stringent welding and quality standards.