IMAGINE what it takes to manufacture something weighing as much as three Eiffel Towers – then ship it! That’s what L&T Hydrocarbon Engineering (LTHE) is going to do a few months from now.
The gigantic project is the Residue Upgradation Facility (RUF) in Vizag for the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL). The deadline is 33 months. Usually, the fabrication and allied tasks for such projects are undertaken at the project site itself.
But now, in a bid to reduce construction risks, enhance labour productivity and meet the stringent deadline, LTHE has opted for modularisation. About 50% of the project will be fabricated at LTHE’s facilities in Kattupalli (Tamil Nadu) and Hazira (Gujarat), and then shipped to the site at Vizag for installation.
Billed as a prestigious project of national importance, the RUF modularisation involves pipe-racks, technology structures, fired heaters, Air Fin Coolers (AFCs) and other auxiliary structures.
Fairly common in the case of offshore assignments, the use of modularisation in a big way for an onshore project is new to LTHE. To make this happen, the team is demonstrating the best in project management and execution capabilities.
LTHE’s modular fabrication yards at Kattupalli and Hazira will fabricate 75 pipe-racks and 15 modules of technology structures, respectively. AFCs and other smaller modules are being fabricated locally at Vizag. A total of 8,500 MT of structural steel and 300,000 ID (interior diameter) of piping will be fabricated, hydro-tested and boxed-up at Kattupalli and Hazira before being shipped to Vizag.
The modules will then be erected in ‘plug and play’ mode at the site. All the modules will include structures, piping, instrument cable trays, instrument ducts, electrical cable trays, junction boxes and fireproofing.
Apart from introducing a ‘build clean, build tight’ approach to the project, modularisation will open up a parallel working front, with a high pre-fabrication ratio.
