Hill International, the global leader in managing construction risk, announced today it has been selected by Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) to provide project management consultancy services for the development of the corporation’s new $275 million, approximately 60 acre research campus, the Indian Oil Technology Development and Deployment Center.
The IOCL’s current research and development facility, which opened in 1972, lacks space for further expansion. Given expansive trends in the company’s research interests, more room is necessary to engage with the myriad of scientific disciplines critical to the company’s future business plans. The IOCL envisions a campus that, in addition to ambitiously serving research and development, surpasses global standards of occupational health and safety as well as environmental sustainability. The company wants the world’s largest and most sustainable net-zero campus.
The new campus will contain a center for alternative and renewable energy; a nanotechnology center; industrial laboratories for the study of carbon nanotubes/batteries, biotechnology, pipelines, petrochemicals, catalysts, and applied metallurgy; refinery infrastructure; as well as commercialization and demonstration units. In addition, the campus will feature recreational, administrative, dining, and utility facilities. The total build-up area will be approximately 194,554 SM.
Hill’s project management consultancy services will be implemented via an engineering procurement, construction, and commissioning contract executed over 41 months. Hill International’s Middle East Regional President Abdo Kardous says of the project: “We’re excited to begin work on this large-scale project. In particular, it will be a rewarding challenge to meet the sustainability goals of the IOCL’s new campus.”
Specifically, the project aims to achieve a LEED v4 Platinum rating. Hill’s project management team will review and confirm all the elements contributing towards the target LEED score. These elements include building orientation and zoning, incident solar radiation, solar shading during solstices and equinoxes, open-space shading, daylight simulation, and site computational fluid dynamics, especially during Monsoon season. Hill’s professionals will also help to ensure proper execution of these environmentally friendly aspects of the project through construction.
“It is a great honor to have been entrusted with the Indian Oil Technology Development and Deployment Center,” says Hill Chief Executive Officer Raouf Ghali. “Indian Oil Corporation’s selection reflects a global trust in our abilities to successfully deliver complex and technically innovative projects. Hill also takes great pride in helping to support ambitiously green projects. And we hope to paradigmatically demonstrate with the completion of this project our regional excellence in India.”
