A pair of cooling towers currently being completed at Kalisindh in India, are believed to be the tallest in the world.
The towers, which rise to 202m, are two metres taller than the current biggest cooling towers of Niederaussem in Germany. The first tower was completed in June.
The towers are part of the $820 million Kalisindh Thermal Energy Plant, which has been funded by the Rajasthan Government and is being built by BGR Energy Systems. Once complete, the facility is expected to generate up to 1200MW.
Construction of the two cooling towers is taking place with the use of two tower cranes from Comansa Jie – a Chinese JV with Spanish crane manufacturer Linden Comansa.
The two 21CJ290 tower cranes each have a maximum load capacity of 18 tonnes, with a jib length of 74 metres, allowing them to reach the tower’s base, which has a diameter of 142 metres .
To build the towers, both cranes have been jacked-up with a hydraulic cage in different phases, until they reached 217m-high. Rope anchorages have also been used to secure them to the shell wall of towers, assuring total stability for the cranes.
The cranes were also able to be dismantled without the use of a mobile crane, thanks to a specialist device designed by Linden Comansa that allows the jib sections to be disassembled and hoisted down the inside of the cooling tower.
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