Larsen & Toubro (L&T) has established India’s largest transmission line research and testing station. This testing station is designed to test transmission line towers of various sizes and capacities. The facility was inaugurated in L&T’s Kancheepuram campus by Shri. S.K. Chaturvedi, chairman and managing director of Power Grid Corp. of India Limited.

This unique facility, set up at a cost of Rs. 25 crores in an area of 20 acres is equipped with imposing steel loading structures for three directional load applications and an expansive concrete test pad with unique foundation arrangement to support any shape of test tower base up to 35 x 35m. This state-of-the-art testing facility includes Advanced Human Machine Interface (HMI) which will help in ensuring reliability of transmission network by validating design through full-scale proto testing of towers upto 1200 kV with 95 m height required for development of EHV networks.

Speaking on the occasion K.V. Rangaswami, member of board and president (Construction) L&T, said, “This could easily be one of the biggest and most sophisticated research and testing center in the world apart from being the largest in the country. L&T has commissioned close to 12,000 km of transmission lines over tough and demanding terrain in over 10 countries across the world. With such an advanced and dedicated tower testing center, L&T is now poised to scale new heights in rapidly completing transmission line projects thereby helping the country realize its ambitious plans of reaching power to even the remote places of the country. This testing station enables to design and validate innovative configurations without any limitations on size, shape and magnitude of loading, which is currently not possible in the industry due to restriction of available testing facilities.” Timely validation of tower design will help in conforming to foundation design and procurement of steel thereby reducing project gestation period greatly, he added.

K.V. Rangaswami believes that with capacities in design, detailed engineering and manufacturing of towers in its own ISO & OHSAS certified factories at Pudhucherry and Pithampur, this new facility for testing of towers will complete the cycle for total turn-key capabilities in construction of transmission lines. L&T will be fully geared to meet the challenges and set indelible benchmarks in the industry.

Currently there is approximately a six month waiting period for tower testing both in India and abroad, with this in-house testing facility, L&T is in a better position of expediting projects to the benefit of power distribution agencies and the society at large.

Highlights of L&T’s Transmission Line Research &Testing Center:
Equipped to perform tests on all types of tower size and shape such as square, rectangular base lattice towers, monopoles, tubular structures and guyed towers form 33 kV to 1200 kV.

The control room is the largest of its kind in the country and features an un-obstructive viewing gallery that offers 360 degree view of the entire testing facility.

It is the only facility in India to have a full-fledged design and fabrication infrastructure within the testing centre – this helps in fabrication of revised tower members for replacement in the least possible time.

Background:
Larsen & Toubro is a USD 8.5 billion technology, engineering and construction group, with global operations. It is one of the largest and most respected companies in India’s private sector.