Jewar Petrol Pump Tensile Structure

The requirement on a filling-station project is specific. The roof has to give complete weather and sun cover over the dispensing islands and the driving lanes around them, it has to sit high enough for tankers and the tallest vehicles, and it cannot rest on columns anywhere a vehicle needs to turn. On top of that, the forecourt earns money every hour it is open, so the structure has to go up with minimal disruption to trading.

Ekra Decor took the project on as a turnkey job: measured site survey, 3D structural and membrane design, fabrication of the galvanised steel frame and the welded fabric panels, and on-site erection and tensioning. At around 3,000 m² the canopy covers more than the pumps alone, so the layout had to work for the shop frontage and forecourt circulation as well as the fuel islands.

A forecourt canopy is really a clear-span problem. The membrane and its supporting steel have to bridge the full width of the islands and lanes and land only on a ring of perimeter columns, kept back from the vehicle paths. Ekra Decor sets the column grid and the roof geometry from the forecourt layout so the driveable area stays completely open underneath.

The fabric is form-found in three dimensions and pre-stressed into a double-curved shape. That curvature is what keeps a lightweight roof stable: it stops the membrane lifting or drumming in the wind and channels rain to defined outlets rather than letting it pool. Jewar is open, exposed country on the expressway corridor, so wind is the governing load; the steelwork is designed to IS 800 and the wind and seismic actions are taken to the applicable Indian codes, with the foundations checked against uplift and overturning rather than weight alone.

The canopy also does a lighting job. A translucent membrane diffuses daylight so there are no hard shadows across the forecourt during the day, and at night it reflects the under-canopy fittings downward, giving an even, glare-free spread of light over the pumps.

The heavy work happens in the workshop. Steel is cut, welded and hot-dip galvanised, and the membrane is cut to the form-found pattern and high-frequency welded into panels, while the foundations and column bases are cast on site. That keeps the on-site programme short: stand the frame, hang the panels, tension the membrane, finish the edge and rainwater details.

On a working filling station that sequence is planned around trading. Parts of the forecourt are handed back as they are finished, deliveries and the crane lift are timed to quiet periods, and the work zone is kept fenced and clear of the fuel-handling area. The whole canopy was completed in about two and a half months.

The station came away with a large, column-free forecourt canopy: vehicles and tankers move freely under it, customers and staff are out of the sun and rain, and the translucent roof keeps the forecourt bright by day and evenly lit at night. It is a low-upkeep structure on a site where downtime is expensive.

Ekra Decor builds forecourt and car-parking tensile canopies across North India. There is more finished work on the projects page, or read about tensile structures in Jewar and the wider Gautam Buddh Nagar area.