Thursday, January 14, 2010

Arad Technologies wins lucractive water metering deal in India

Arad Technologies, a Yokneam, Israel-based wireless water meter manufacturer, and Luxembourg-based meter maker Actaris Metering Systems were jointly awarded a deal to provide 150,000 water meters to the city of Mumbai, India according to Globes.

Citing the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute, Globes reports that the deal is part of a $128 million project to install 1.2 million water meters in Mumbai, though contracts for the remainder of the project have not been distributed. Arad and Actaris, however, are expected to win the follow-on tenders, because of logistical difficulties in coordinating different meter systems and technologies in a single municipal network.

Arad Technologies—a subsidiary of Tel-Aviv stock exchange listed water measuring technologies manufacturer the Arad Group —specializes in Web-based automatic meter reading technology for municipal water networks, and also has expertise in electric and gas meters. According to Arad Technologies, its products help to reduce operating costs, allow for more accurate measurements, and increase the lifetime of meters for its customers.

According to a report in Reuters, Arad Technologies sold more than $100 million in water meters in 2008 and is developing a fly-by system using small pilotless aircraft to collect data from water maters in real time.

Arad Technologies participated in the tender through the Export Institute and the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor's Foreign Trade Administration and Israel NewTech program for promoting the water technology and renewable energy industries.

Arad Technologies president Dan Winter said, "Winning this tender is a breakthrough for us, which opens a new market that is full of opportunities. Arad is in the final stages of two other tenders in India, and in view of the heavy demand, we are considering moving some production there."

Actaris is a subsidiary of Itron (Nasdaq:ITRI), which offers products and services including metering, data collection, and software to utilities worldwide in the energy and water markets

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