Orascom Construction said it has achieved a major milestone by completing the first phase of a giant power plant in Assiut, Egypt, in record time.  The plant generates and connects 375 MW to the country’s national grid.

A Dubai-headquartered global engineering and construction contractor, Orascom is primarily focused on infrastructure, industrial and high-end commercial projects in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena), the US and the Pacific Rim region.

The company started the engineering and construction work on December 15, 2014 and completed all the installations for the first phase of the project five-and-a-half months later.

This achievement came to fruition with the effort of more than 5,500 Egyptian workers currently on site and 5.7 million man-hours with no injury to date, said a statement from the company.

Orascom Construction is part of a consortium that was awarded two contracts last December to build power plants at Assiut and West Damietta with a capacity of 1,000 MW and 500 MW respectively.

Both the projects are part of Egypt’s emergency power programme scheduled for completion on an fast-track basis. The consortium intends to add another 625 MW to Egypt’s national power grid at both Assiut and West Damietta by July 1, 2015.

Orascom Construction said it had also completed a part of the second phase of the power plant at 6th of October City this month, connecting an additional 300 MW to the national grid.-TradeArabia News Service