Major contracts let in Kuwait, Azerbaijan, the U.A.E. and India.

Otis to Supply 190 Units for Kuwait Airport’s New Terminal

Otis Kuwait has been awarded a contract to supply 190 elevators for the new Passenger Terminal 2 at Kuwait International Airport, the company announced on September 16. The contract calls for the installation of 171 Gen2™ units with capacities up to 5000 kg and 19 heavy-duty elevators with capacities up to 11 T. The units feature Otis’ ReGen® Drive, Gen2™ flat-coated steel belts and Pulse™ monitoring systems. The scope of the contract comprises all elevators within the new terminal.

The KWD1.31-billion (US$4.34-billion) project will greatly enhance the capacity of Kuwait International Airport and establish it as a new regional air hub. The 708,000-m2 building is designed to handle 25 million passengers per year and will play a key role in boosting air traffic and meeting the growing demand for air travel services in Kuwait. The general contractor is LİMAK İnşaat Kuwait SPC, which is being contracted by the Kuwait Ministry of Public Works. Completion is expected in 2022.

Steel Giants: Industry-First Escalators by thyssenkrupp

thyssenkrupp recently installed the longest escalators ever produced in Germany, four 100-m-long, 48.7-m-high units that are part of a 25-escalator order for the Baku Metro in Azerbaijan (ELEVATOR WORLD, July 2017). The escalators will help increase capacity of the metro stations by 50% and facilitate the flow of more than 231 million passengers annually. With motors and gears installed on the floor in front of the units rather than inside, the four “steel giants” are, according to thyssenkrupp, narrower than any other escalators yet offer the same level of comfort and space as traditional units. Besides the ultra-deep escalators, the contract included eight high-rise escalators for the Sahil and Khatai stations, and 17 escalators for a new station.

The only thyssenkrupp escalators longer than the ones in the Baku metro are 53-m-high units manufactured for the Moscow Metro that had not yet been installed in September. thyssenkrupp shared fun facts about the installation, including that:

• Each unit weighs 75 mT, the equivalent of 50 Volkswagen Golf cars.
• The length of the step chain for each of the four escalators is 1.7 km — longer than the swimming course of an Olympic triathlon.
• The distance covered by each escalator each day is 54 km and approximately 19,700 km per year — about half the earth’s circumference.

The company stated:

“The 100-m escalators have been a significant challenge, as parts had to be shipped more than 3,800 km from Germany’s only escalator factory in Hamburg to Azerbaijan by 36 trucks. Each steel giant had to be disassembled and transported separately to the construction site. Because of the vast heights and weight of the parts involved, workers at the Hamburg factory had to use a scaffold to climb up the individual components and adjust parts of the escalator.”

KONE to Equip Dubai Luxury Two-Tower Development

KONE has won an order to deliver 25 elevators to Address Harbour Point, a high-end twin-tower development in Dubai, the company announced in September. The towers, part of the Dubai Creek Harbour Community, will offer serviced residences and a five-star hotel, and are expected to house up to 200,000 residents. Address Harbour Point is located on the northern cape of Creek Island Dubai, near Dubai’s Creek Marina and downtown Dubai. The towers will stand 212 and 255 m tall and offer residents direct views of the Dubai Creek Tower observation tower currently under construction.

KONE will deliver 11 3000S MonoSpace® elevators and 14 MiniSpace™ elevators. The towers will be equipped with the E-Link™ remote monitoring facility management system, which allows constant monitoring of the vertical-transportation system’s status. Address Harbour Point is being developed by Emaar Properties PJSC, and it is scheduled for completion in 2021.

Johnson Lifts Pursuing More Indian Rail Projects

Johnson Lifts, India’s largest vertical-transportation company, plans to pursue more metro projects and modernizations of railway stations, The Economic Times reported in August. With the real estate sector slowing, Johnson Lifts has turned to government projects to maintain growth, winning INR2.5 billion (US$35 million) in orders for multiple phases of the Mumbai Metro and another INR1.2 billion (US$16.8 million) for modernizations at stations of the Western and Central Railways. Yohan K. John, director of Johnson Lifts, said, “Over the last couple of years, the builder segment in residential real estate has seen subdued demand with few takers for projects, but there has been significant growth in opportunities due to major urban infrastructure programs.” He said the company expected to have billing revenue of INR20 billion (US$280 million) for the current fiscal year, up from INR18.5 billion (US$260 million) the previous year.