At 12,500tpd, ACC’s new cement kiln at Wadi is the world’s largest and is the result of a tremendous effort by hundreds of people to achieve a common goal. Anoopkumar Saxena and R Nand Kumar of ACC Ltd, look back at the project execution, the challenges the company had to overcome and the parallel task of building two new satellite grinding plants.
Commercial production at ACC Ltd’s Wadi II plant, situated in India’s southern state of Karnataka, commenced on 1 May 2011. This integrated cement project comprised a clinker line expanded to 12,500tpd as well as two satellite cement grinding works (both in Karnataka) to manufacture Portland slag cement and fly-ash based Portland pozzolana cement. Considering the kiln line would be the largest in the world, ACC had to surmount numerous challenges to complete the project without disrupting operations at its existing Wadi plant. As such, commissioning of the project makes it one of the most notable achievements in engineering excellence within the global cement industry.
A history of innovation
The small town of Wadi, located in the limestone-rich Gulbarga district in Karnataka, is an importantrailway junction at the intersection of lines between Mumbai, Hyderabad and Chennai. Wadi is almost at the centre of the Indian peninsula and the nearest major cities are Hyderabad (200km east), Mumbai (600km northwest), and Chennai (700km southeast). The Karnataka state capital of Bengaluru (formerly known as Bangalore) is 550km to the south and the town of Bellary is situated almost mid-way.
