Manitowoc 16000 on Indian wind project

India's first Manitowoc 16000 with wind attachment is currently working on one of the country's largest wind farms, the Jasdan 100 MW project in Gujarat.

The 16000 is owned by crane rental firm Amrik Singh & Sons Crane Services, who acquired the crane in mid 2011 from TIL Limited, Manitowoc crawler and mobile crane dealer in India. The project involves the erection of more than 50 turbines of 2.1 MW capacity, each taking two to three days to assemble. The assembly includes lifting 85 tonne nacelles on towers up to 80 metres tall.

Prior to purchasing the 16000 the Amrik Singh team used a combination of cranes for wind turbine projects, including 550 tonne capacity Krupp mobile crane, plus some smaller cranes around 250 tonnes capacity and larger lattice boom mobile cranes up to 800 tonnes. Three or four of these were needed to erect wind turbines to 2.1 MW capacity. Now the 16000 can erect these turbines on its own and has the capability to install larger turbines.

The Amrik Singh fleet includes 20 Krupp all terrains, including a 550 tonne capacity Krupp 500 GMT. The 400 tonne capacity 16000 is its largest new crawler crane, and also its first Manitowoc.