Turnkey cold storage construction, under one contract.
Design, civil and structural works, PUF insulation, refrigeration, electrical and commissioning — delivered by one team that stays accountable from the first site visit to the day the store holds temperature.
What "turnkey" actually means here
Most cold storage projects in India are assembled from three or four separate contracts: a civil contractor, a panel supplier, a refrigeration vendor and an electrical contractor. Each is responsible for his own scope, and nobody is responsible for the building working. When the humidity does not hold, the meetings begin.
Under a single EPC contract, that argument cannot happen. We carry the design, the procurement, the construction and the commissioning, and the performance of the finished store is ours to answer for.
What is in our scope
- Design and engineering — capacity and chamber planning, heat-load calculation, layout, drawings, and the design basis your bank will ask for
- Civil and structural works — foundations, RCC, structural steel, platforms and steel mezzanine floors
- PUF insulation and cold rooms — insulated wall, roof and partition panels, floor and ceiling insulation, doors and flashings
- Refrigeration — ammonia and Freon plants, air coolers, piping, controls, dehumidification, and commissioning
- Electrical and utilities — LT panels, cabling, lighting, earthing, standby power and equipment connections
- Commissioning and handover — integrated testing, pull-down, humidity hold, operator training and documentation
- Facility maintenance — annual maintenance, modernisation and optimisation, for the life of the asset
Who does the work
Our own team owns design, engineering, procurement, site management, quality control and commissioning. Trade crews for civil, PUF, refrigeration and electrical work are deployed under Coldcare's direct site supervision — so the owner and the lender deal with one contract, one programme and one accountable party.
Typical project size
1,000 MT to 10,000 MT and above, single storey or multi-tier. Smaller cold rooms are better served by a room supplier, and we will tell you so.
Concept to keys, in six stages.
Consult
Commodity, volumes, season, business model, site study and power availability.
Design
Capacity at NCCD norms, chamber layout, heat load, humidity, racking and handling.
Plan
Detailed BOQ tied to a stated design basis, inputs for the project report, programme.
Build
Civil, structure, PUF insulation, refrigeration, electrical — one programme, staged billing.
Commission
Pull-down with load, humidity held and recorded, standby power tested, operators trained.
Keys
Handover with drawings, test certificates and manuals — then maintenance for the life of the store.
What decides whether a cold store works
The design basis, written down
Every store we build starts with a stated design basis: the commodity, the incoming temperature, the daily loading, the cooling time, and the temperature and relative humidity to be held. It is one page, it goes into the contract, and it is what the plant is sized against. A contractor who cannot give you that page is guessing.
Capacity computed honestly
Capacity is volume divided by the storage norm — about 141 cubic feet per MT under current NCCD guidance — and then adjusted for your bag or pallet, stacking height, aisles and handling. A store rated at 5,000 MT that only holds 3,800 MT of your commodity is the single commonest disappointment in this industry, and it is decided on paper, months before anything is built.
Humidity, not just temperature
Any plant holds temperature. Humidity is the hard part, and it is what decides whether seed germinates, chilli holds colour and onion does not sprout. Seed wants 45–50% RH, chilli 65–70%, most fruit 85–90%. One building, different chambers, different design.
Documentation the bank can read
Most of the projects we build are financed. That means the BOQ, the capacity calculation and the drawings have to survive a valuer's scrutiny, and the billing has to line up with the disbursement schedule. We write for that audience from the start — it costs nothing extra and saves months.
Questions we are asked before every project
How long does it take to build a cold storage?
It depends on size, site and season — typically five to nine months from the date drawings are frozen, assuming the site is ready and payments follow the agreed stages. Steel and panel construction is faster than conventional civil work, and we give you a dated programme before we start rather than a promise on the phone.
Do you work outside Telangana and Andhra Pradesh?
Yes. We have built in Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka and across south India, and our Hyderabad team travels. More than 100 projects have been engineered across India since 2000.
Can you take over a project another contractor has left incomplete?
Yes, and we have done it several times. We start with a joint inspection, a written record of what exists on site, and a fresh BOQ for the balance work, so that responsibility for what came before is clear.
Do you supply only PUF panels, or refrigeration alone?
Our core work is the whole store under one contract. We do take on refrigeration-only and modernisation work for existing stores, including ones we did not build.
What warranty do we get?
Equipment carries the manufacturer warranty, typically one year on the plant. Panel delamination and paint warranties come from the panel maker and are passed on in writing. Our own workmanship warranty and the maintenance contract are written into the agreement.
Tell us what you want to store.
We come back with an indicative capacity, a cost range and the subsidy your project may qualify for. No obligation, no consultant's fee.
Tell us what you want to store.
We will come back with an indicative capacity, a cost range and what subsidy your project may qualify for. No obligation, and no consultant's fee.