AN air conditioning firm has secured a lucrative seven-figure contract to supply air conditioning for a new £18 billion metro system in Saudi Arabia.

Airedale International Air Conditioning, based in Rawdon won the contract to supply cooling units for the new metro in the Middle Eastern country’s capital city, Riyadh.

The £1 million export order will see Airedale supply specialised ‘EasiCool’ air conditioning units for use in the metro’s data centres, where the computer servers which will keep the metro running like clockwork need to be kept at a controlled temperature.

The new metro system which is currently under construction in Riyadh, will consist of six lines covering 110 miles, incorporating 85 stations.

Situated in central Saudi Arabia, temperatures in Riyadh rarely drop below 20 degrees, and in summer regularly top 40 degrees.

The major contract win comes just five years after Airedale’s factory in Rawdon was destroyed by a fire. It now employs 400 people at its rebuilt production facility.

Asim Ansari, export sales manager at Airedale, said: “This is a fantastic contract win for us, on a huge and very high profile project.

“Exports now make up around 30 per cent of our sales at Airedale and we have been growing our presence in the Middle East over the last few years, after establishing an office in Dubai in 2014.

“This has allowed us to strengthen partnerships in the region, in this case with Saudi Temco, SETRA and the BACS Consortium, which are heavily involved with the design and construction of the project.”

Mr Ansari added British-made products are held in particularly high regard in the Middle East.

He said: “The made-in-Britain pedigree carries a lot of influence in the United Arab Emirates, as in many other countries.

“UK-engineered goods have become synonymous with the highest quality and continued technical innovation.”

The Riyadh metro system is expected to have a light opening this year, and will be fully operational by 2021.

Officials in Saudi Arabia hope the fully-electrified system will reduce the number of car journeys in the city by 250,000 a day, reducing the amount of pollution in the city, and expect the project will reach 3.6 million passengers every day.

It will feature both underground and elevated trains, including a fully automated - driverless - monorail system, with separate coaches for families.

The system is a collaboration of a number of international firms, with companies including Samsung, Siemens, and London-based Zaha Hadid architects all working on the project.