Thirty electricity substations across Bahrain will be upgraded by a Malaysian company, PSI InControl, that plans to make the country its regional headquarters, said a report.

They are getting new Remote Terminal Units (RTU), which are transmitters connecting them to the Electricity and Water Authority (EWA) control centre.

The Malaysian company has tendered for the BD1 million ($2.63 million) contract.

Minister of State for Electricity and Water Affairs Dr Abdulhussain Mirza told the Gulf Daily News, our sister publication, that the project would make the network more efficient.

Malaysian Ambassador Dato Ahmad Abd Samad told a Press conference at the Kempinski Grand and Ixir Hotel Bahrain City Centre yesterday that the deal was a boost for bilateral relations.

"In the past trade has been very, very small - a total of just BD250 million last year," he said.

"We want to see how to move forward."

PSI chairman and managing director Harvinder Singh said the company now planned to make Bahrain its regional base.

"It's key for the EWA to upgrade these systems as they were installed more than 20 years ago and are no longer supportable since there are no spares available," he said.

"We will be bringing in state of the art equipment to the substations and updating communications media.

"We hope to provide new solutions and make them ready for the next 20 years."

The project began three weeks ago and is scheduled to be completed in a year's time.-TradeArabia News Service