India, Oct. 22 -- LAKHIMPUR KHERI In an extraordinary feat of heavy-haul engineering and cross-state coordination, a mammoth 240-wheel trailer carrying a 110-ft-long, 26-ft-wide reactor from Belgium rolled into Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri district on Wednesday, nearing the finish line of a gruelling six-month road journey across four states.

The giant vessel-a cyclisation reactor-is the centrepiece of India's first integrated sugar-to-bioplastic (Polylactic Acid, or PLA) plant being set up at Balrampur Chini Mills in Kumbhi village in UP's Kheri district. Escorted by police personnel, three red-flagged pilot vehicles and a 40-member technical crew tasked with lifting overhead power cables and pruning roadside trees, the convoy was st...