Redcon Construction: part of Egypt’s transformation across all sectors

Chairman of Redcon Construction, Eng. Tarek ElGamal reveals that the upcoming railway upgrade in Egypt is revolutionary and will boost the national GDP

A heavyweight in the Egyptian construction sector— Redcon Construction is a grade ‘A’ general contractor with 28 years of solid experience and rates amongst the top 5 companies in the country.   Chairman of Redcon Construction, Eng. Tarek ElGamal reveals that most mega projects in Egypt have the Redcon corporate identity on them. “Redcon is the parent company to a group of 10 companies in various sectors with a diversified portfolio covering construction, pre-cast, GRC, aluminium, real estate at large, facility management, and more.” As Egypt continues to grow at a phenomenal rate, ElGamal believes these local mega projects will create much-needed employment and boost the national economy’s GDP rates. An excellent example of this is Egypt’s railway projects.

Redcon is already working with the Ministry of Transportation. “Rail is the cheapest means of ground transportation, and the country has very ambitious plans to build highspeed railway which is already in the works,” he says. “We are the contractors for the light rail transit (LRT) and the high-speed rail transit (HRT) ones as well with another station in progress and two more contracts in the pipeline.” According to ElGamal, these upcoming railway projects in Egypt are not just life-changing, but a revolutionary fast forward to the future. It will leverage the entire logistics industry throughout the transit-oriented development (TOD). “The cost rate of logistics is quite high at 40% in Egypt, as compared to many countries between 10-12% so you can well imagine how impactful this project will be,” he explains since currently in Egypt, 90% of cargo is usually transported by road while 10% is via the Nile River. “The light rail transit (LRT) is also part of the plan with lines 4, 5, and 6 already under way,” he explains, with the first phase of the monorail expected to launch partially in May 2022 while the highspeed one is under construction. Redcon has long experience in almost all construction verticals; in infrastructure, high-rise buildings, industrial, public, commercial, office, recreational, educational, residential, medical buildings, and gated compounds either with prominent global firms or with GCC developers such as Al Futtaim, Al Jazi, JW Marriot, Ritz, and Emaar or prestigious local developers like; NUCA, Ora, City Edge, Palm Hills, Sodic, Amer, Mountain View, Imkan, New Giza, Orascom Developments, Abraj, and others.

“In industrial projects, we worked with Knauf, Royal, Edita, and in office buildings, we worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), ABC bank, Bank Audi headquarters in the 5th settlement, as well as the New Cairo Financial Center (NCFC) in which we constructed one of the first tier 4 data centres in Egypt for a Google subsidiary.   “In the educational field, we worked on projects for the Egyptian-Japanese University for Science & Technology (EJUST), Al-Alamein University, Deraya University as well as the American International School at CFC, Modern English School (MES), the Korean School in New Cairo and El Alsson New Giza,” he says. “It is worthy to mention that the ‘Al-Alamein University project’ has been accomplished in a record-breaking period of 15 months, and students are already studying pharmaceuticals, and engineering on the premises.”

In the medical sector, one of Redcon’s key projects in Luxor, Upper Egypt is “Shifa Orman” Hospital. Redcon is one of the leading contractors in most of the national projects in Egypt; be it in Al-Alamein, the New Administrative Capital (NAC), New Mansoura, Suhag, Alexandria, Down Town Cairo and more. “We are involved in most of the megaprojects; most of these are being developed by NUCA (New Urban Communities Authority), a renowned government-affiliated developer. Redcon is in the finishing phase of the iconic gate-shaped Tower in Al-Alamein, which is considered the gateway from Europe to Africa. ElGamal elaborates, “We are the contractors for one of the two towers which stands at 44-storeys and 170 m height (The Gate). We have completed all of the concrete work, with only finishing, facade, and the electro-mechanical works in progress.” Restoring old Egypt has been integral to Redcon with their Magra El Oyoun, Maspero and Ain El Sera project, which was restored in one year. We are also involved in a unique development in New Cairo which will ‘reclaim an authentic street experience’.

“The Golden Gate is a project developed by ROCC (Redcon Offices and Commercial Centres), new subsidiary of Redcon Construction, located on a 1.25 km stretch of South 90 road right across the American University campus,” he says. “Master planning for this super commercial, offices, and entertainment project is done by the well-known global architect WATG, one of the world’s most renowned architects worldwide.” A development located in the best prime location in the 5th settlement, completion for the first phase of Golden Gate is expected by the end of 2023. Backward integration is a core focus for Redcon, says ElGamal. “Our concrete company ‘Cemento’ is considered one of the best in terms of quality,” he says, as well as another smaller but extremely profitable company “Redcon GRC”. “This glass-reinforced concrete is the component for all decorative amenities on buildings, on the façade, and is even being integrated into interiors.” The youngest member of the Redcon Group is ‘AluRedcon’ specialized in the field of aluminium works.

Another highly specialised sister company is Redcon Spain that began as an investment firm. “Redcon Management is specialized in project management; so our portfolio diversified over the years,” he says. “We also have a small investment in the largest digitalisation infrastructure known as ‘Fiber Misr’ or Benya.” And as Egypt’s transformation continues to progress and with their wealth of experience in the construction sector, Redcon focuses on integrating all sectors to the giant umbrella of construction.