Consulting and construction supervision for a Brownfield coke oven plant with a by-product plant can be yet another project in the life of a technology consulting firm that has been in the business for five decades. However, when there are 88 oven chambers, 11 major partners (some international), Chinese technology, Indian contractors and a Brownfield project with facilities operational – the assignment gets truly ‘colourful.’ This project goes down in the annals of the Construction business history as a souvenir due to some key technology aspects of the project:

1. Integration and management of various technology partners, especially interpreting from Chinese technology partners and implementing them in Indian conditions
2. Construction of state-of-the-art, architecturally designed and built, main receiving sub-station complete with office building comprising six levels with passenger lift – built adopting ‘green building’ concepts.
3. Dismantling top structural arrangements and brick lining five layers of top coming from a height of 145 metres for a chimney from the outer side.
4. Erection of coal conveyor gallery between two coal towers at a height of 54 metres.
5. Installation of large numbers of stainless steel burner pipes, cleaning nozzle pipes in each block of battery within a close tolerance for their locations.
6. Construction and retrofitting of a new cooling tower in by-product area and dismantling of an existing cooling tower for clearing a front for scrubbers and compressor house.
7. Construction of junction house and coal conveyor gallery with 12 metres depth alongside existing coal conveyor.
8. Construction of cooling tower basin on the roof of a process chiller plant.
9. A 68-metre high quenching tower wall construction up to 31metres along with refractory work.
10. Installation of de-dusting nozzles at 58 and 43 metres inside the quenching tower.

There were several other challenges especially on account of retrofitting a large facility upgrade with no downtime. These challenges were addressed with innovative solutions, which have now become benchmark practises for such a facility erection. The Tata Consulting Engineers’ Construction business unit’s proud moment came when the plant was commissioned in record time and in concurrence with international safety standards.