L&T opens tower testing facility near Chennai

Construction major Larsen & Toubro Limited (L&T) inaugurated its new tower testing facility at Kanchipuram, 50 kilometre from Chennai, on Friday. L&T claims that the new facility, set up at a cost of 25 crore, is the country’s largest tower testing centre, which would cater to both commercial and the company's captive purposes.

“With this launch, we will be able to speed up power projects for our customers by delivering the towers faster. Currently, there is a six-month waiting period for tower testing both in India and abroad. With this in-house facility, L&T is in a position to bring this down by 3-4 months,” KV Rangaswami, president (construction), L&T, told mediapersons here.

KU Warrier, general manager (transmission lines and railway electrification business unit) of L&T, said the company's order book was full till April 2010. “At present, the company is testing a 220 Kv tower for the Maharashtra State Electricity Company. A 440 Kv tower, designed by L&T for the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB), will be taken up shortly,” he said, adding that the new facility can test towers with a capacity of 33 Kv to 1,200 Hv.