Potain's tight fit in Mumbai

The cranes will work on three high-rise towers, which due to restrictions on space, cost and time, meant Indiabulls have to position the cranes internally to the structures, and required 1.6m mast sections that could fit inside the elevator shafts.

Typically, Indian lift shafts are smaller than standard in the rest of the world: with tower cranes still an emerging technology in the market, few manufacturers build tower cranes to fit this local demand.

The Manitowoc team proposed eight 10t capacity MC 205 cranes to build the three high-rise towers. All of the cranes would be mounted on 1.6m mast sections and, because of space limitations, Manitowoc proposed shorter jibs of 25m. The team also designed a coordinated climbing plan for the course of construction, synchronizing it with the placing of formwork and the completion of the building cores.

The three towers that make up the project are: the Sky Suites, a 75-story tower using two MC 205 cranes; the Sky Forest, an 80-story tower using four MC 205 cranes; and the Sky, a 65-story tower using two MC 205 cranes. All of the cranes will eventually reach working heights of 270m.

The cranes will spend approximately 50% of their time handling steel reinforcement and 40% lifting the concrete formwork. The remaining 10% is spent placing concrete by bucket. Loads range between 2t and 2.5t.