Integrated Refinery Expansion Project (IREP) is aimed at increasing the refining capacity of Kochi Refinery from the existing 9.5 MMTPA to 15.5 MMTPA with the modernization of refinery to produce auto-fuels complying with Euro-IV/ Euro-V specifications. The units of IREP are designed to be flexible enough to process high Sulphur crudes that will fetch a higher margin.

BOXCO has been awarded the contract to transport 16 critical Over Dimensional Cargoes (ODCs); where 6 super critical ODCs were to be transported by multimodal transportation method and rest of the ODCs by road from the Kochi Port to the BPCL site.

The special hatch-type barge had been arranged for reducing the height of the packages to safely cross 19 in-route bridges (where height clearance is less than cargo height) in backwaters. A special basin-like jetty was constructed to remove the cargo from the barge by ‘roll-off method’ after cutting the forward side of the barge.

The cargo was transported to site via road where the permission was taken from the Rail authorities for the shutdown and in-route bridges were checked for the safe movement. Timely delivery was achieved by using a combination of state-of-the-art Selfpropelled Modular Trailer (SPMT) axles for each package.

The project for the six ODC packages was a challenge, which was overcome by the safe, timely and efficient planning of the team. The biggest issue faced in the project was to perform the barging operation in the National Waterway 3. The Inland Waterways Authority of India (IWAI) permission was taken for the movement of the barges through the Inland Waterway 3, efforts were put by all the team members in unison with a team technical personnel and crew was maintained, three months prior to the movement of the packages to ensure that all the legal and necessary permissions from the authorities were taken well-in-advance before the transportation and barging. The overall project was very crucial, and the safe and timely delivery of the packages was a huge achievement for the planning and execution team.