Vikram Solar Limited, Kolkata Store Shed & Canopy Tensile Covering

Ekra Decor built a tensile membrane roof over the store shed and an adjoining canopy at Vikram Solar Limited’s manufacturing site near Kolkata, West Bengal — about 10,000 sq ft of covered area in total, designed, fabricated and installed in 30 days.

The clientVikram Solar Limited is one of India’s largest solar photovoltaic module manufacturers, with production based in the Falta Special Economic Zone in South 24 Parganas, just south of Kolkata. A plant of that size moves a constant flow of inbound materials — solar glass, encapsulant film, backsheet rolls, aluminium framing, junction boxes — and outbound finished modules, and all of it has to be kept dry and out of direct sun while it waits to move.

What it coversThe store shed roof is the main structure. It puts a continuous, sealed membrane cover over the storage and staging area so stock and finished panels sit under a weatherproof roof rather than under tarpaulins or in the open. The membrane is shaped with a positive fall so that even in a heavy downpour water runs straight off the low edge and clears the structure — there are no flat spots where rain can collect, pond and add load. Alongside it, the canopy covers the working strip next to the shed, giving the team a shaded, rain-protected area to sort, check and load material without stepping out into the yard.

Site conditionsSouth 24 Parganas is hot and humid for most of the year, takes the full force of the south-west monsoon from June to September, and sits close enough to the Bay of Bengal to feel the edge of cyclone-season weather. The steel frame is hot-dip galvanised so the humid, salt-tinged air does not quietly corrode it, the structure is engineered to the wind loading for the site rather than a lighter inland figure, and the foundations are sized against uplift — the governing case for a light tensile roof — not just downward weight.

The 30-day programmeThe 30-day programme was possible because the work runs in parallel: the membrane panels and the structural steel are cut, welded and galvanised off-site while the foundations are being cast, so site time is spent erecting the frame and tensioning the membrane rather than fabricating in place. Both elements — the store shed roof and the canopy — were handed over together at the end of that window.