L&T Electrical & Automation FZE (LTEAFZE) in Jebel Ali, the Competency Centre for L&T Electrical & Automation (E&A)'s automation business in the United Arab Emirates, won a major order worth Rs.500 crore (QR278 million) from Qatar Rail Company for Phase 1 of Doha Metro. The scope of the order encompasses supply, installation, testing, integration, commissioning and 5 years' maintenance of a network-wide Building Automation and Control Systems (BACS) for 37 stations. [caption id="attachment_127053" align="alignright" width="300"] S.C. Bhargava[/caption] LTEAFZE was nominated by QRAIL for network-wide implementation of BACS after a meticulous assessment of its capabilities in delivering technologically advanced solutions within stringent project timelines and with distinguished quality against global automation product manufacturers. The Frame Agreement awarded by Qatar Rail to LTEAFZE is through 9 contracts with design and build contractors for the stations and tunnels under multiple lines (Red line, Green line and Gold Line) and a 5-year maintenance contract directly with Qatar Rail. Speaking on the order, S.C. Bhargava, senior vice president & head of E&A Business, revealed, "LTEAFZE's core strengths for project management, domain knowledge and application engineering will enable us to offer distinctly superior and proven system integration solutions by leveraging L&T's capabilities built over four decades. Backed by a pool of experienced engineers, LTEAFZE has the competency to provide preventive and corrective maintenance services to maximize the performance and uptime of its automation systems and control equipment." The metro system will be built in two phases: The first will see the construction of three out of the four lines (Red, Gold, and Green) and 37 stations spanning 111 km of tunnels and 8.7 km of viaducts. The Phase 1 has to be completed on a fast paced project schedule for handing over all the 37 stations by August 2018 with scheduled start on revenue period by end 2019. These lines are expected to be open to the public by 2020. When in operation, the project will provide an environmentally-friendly and sustainable mode of transport to over 600,000 commuters a day by 2021. The second phase will be completed by 2026, and will involve the expansion of the Phase 1 lines, and the construction of an additional Blue Line and another 72 stations. The purpose of BACS is to control and supervise MEP systems, acquire and display MEP equipment status and alarms, provide reliable and effective 3rd-party interfacing services, storage and offline/online analysis of MEP systems acquired data, enable testing and commissioning of MEP systems. It will be able to operate either in remote control mode through ICC Rail SCADA controls or in stand-alone mode from the station control room. The project requires a structured and systematic approach to ensure all requirements are met with regard to reliability, availability, maintainability and safety (RAMS). Interfaced with BACS are the MEP systems and sub systems like station air conditioning systems, special ventilation system for life safety, fire-fighting system, LV power systems, addressable lighting systems, vertical and horizontal transportation system and plumbing system at stations and tunnels. BACS is being designed to help build green station buildings with higher energy efficiency, lower operating and maintenance costs, better indoor air quality and greater occupant comfort and productivity in line with global sustainability assessment systems. BACS solution is based on fault-tolerant programmable logic controllers, BACS servers and software with system availability ≥ 99.995% and safety integrity level ≥ 2 in view of the control of critical life safety functions.
