Two Liebherr flat-top cranes build an 82-storey super-tall skyscraper in Mumbai.

Contractor Larsen & Toubro is using two Liebherr 202 EC-B 10 Litronic climbing cranes to build the 82-storey Lokhandwala Minerva towers in Mumbai. Two Liebherr 202 EC-B 10 Litronic flat-top cranes are being used to build the two towers, an 85-storey super-tall skyscraper that will be one of the city?s tallest buildings when it is completed in 2015. Developed by Lokhandwala Infrastructure, the project is designed by Architect Hafeez Contractor, with Leslie E Robertson Associates and J+W Consultants as structural engineers and construction being undertaken by Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

Minerva is located in the Mahalaxmi district of Mumbai, an area that previously housed the city?s Victorian-era cotton mills and which is now a showpiece area of slum clearance and modern development projects. The two cranes were supplied to L&T by Liebherr CMCtec India and installed on site earlier this year. Both cranes were manufactured in Germany.

?We are using both cranes in an unusual configuration to suit the construction sequence,? says L&T Project Manager Palwinder Singh. ?During the planning stages, we had considered using two heavy duty flat/luffing jib cranes to feed the materials as acute space constraints and logistics are the biggest challenges on this project,? he added.

?There is also the fact that an existing tower newly built stands next to the site, and running behind the site is a railway line.We made the decision that the selected tower crane must have high speed and lifting capacity of more than 5 Mt and should be able to climb within the available lift shaft. We opted for Liebherr which addressed all the criteria raised by L&T for Minerva.?

?The EC-B series is very familiar to us, and working with Liebherr, we were able to draw up specifications and deployment that used two 202 EC-B10 units with shorter-than-standard jibs. Standard jibs on this model are 65 m, but we have opted for two 40 m jibs because of the site constrictions, and we have started one crane at a height of 42 m and the other at 48 m, to ensure the two jibs overfly each other. The 202 EC-B 10, which is a 10 t crane, can lift 5.3 T at 40 m.?

Both cranes have been located inside the lift shafts of the buildings and will climb with the structure, which will reach an eventual height of 300 m. The crane itself has a maximum hook height of 63.1 m. The higher of the two units will be working at 320 m when the building tops out. David Griffin, Liebherr?s Director of Sales & Service for tower cranes in India commended the professionalism and attitude to quality and safety of L&T.

?Site personnel and people such as tower crane veterans Narayanan and Anand Ramadoss make executing such crane supplies a really enjoyable procedure for our team,? he said. Minerva has a reinforced concrete frame and floor slabs, and is being constructed entirely of in situ concrete. Its facade will be applied masonry and curtain wall, and there are 16 lift shafts.
With 85 storeys above ground, the structure will have only two levels below ground. Parking levels will be from the 1st to the 10th floors, there will be a garden podium on the 11th floor, while the 26th to 83th floors will be for residential use. There will be penthouses and a terrace on the 84st and 85th floors.

Residents will be able to enjoy the horse races from their windows, as the towers overlook Mumbai?s famous Mahalaxmi Racecourse.