Sunshine undertakes 200 mln birr expansion project

 By our staff reporter

 Sunshine Construction PLC will build 110 ground-plus-one residential houses on 250 and 500 square meters of land in its real estate project within a period of one year.

The groundwork of the houses, which are located around CMC, was completed in three months time, and as construction continues, it was disclosed, all houses have already been sold.

“The second phase of the real estate project will commence next year, and we believe the endeavor will help alleviate the basic housing problem in Addis Ababa,” said Samuel Tafesse, General Manager of Sunshine Construction in an interview he gave to Capital. Samuel added that construction of thirty-three ground-plus-four condominium buildings will be completed within a year. “The condominiums in the Gerji area will have relatively lower prices for the sake of middle class people.”

The company has also constructed a five-storey building adjacent to its present headquarters located on Africa Avenue (Bole Road). This expansion project covering over 10 thousand square meters of land is undertaken with a cost of 25 million birr. “The building that would be the main office of Sunshine Construction will have 40 rooms,” Samuel disclosed. He added that the company is building a ground-plus-10 edifice with a two-storey underground parking lot on an area of 3 thousand square meters at a cost of 70-75 million birr.

In the coming April, Sunshine Construction will build 100 furnished apartment buildings, with an outlay of 100 million birr, each apartment fitted with two bedrooms and a kitchen.

The company is also engaged in road construction. It is currently working on the 50 Km gravel road from Fincha Hydroelectric Power Station to the Fincha Sugar Factory with a cost of 75 million birr, which is expected to be completed in April 2005. The 50 Km gravel road from Muke Turi to Alem Ketema costing 40 million birr is expected to be completed in the coming Ethiopian year.

The construction of the Nazareth Technical College (NTC) at a cost of 60 million birr in Toto, which includes 13 new buildings each having 4 storey, is scheduled to be completed in the coming August. With a similar cost, construction work is underway in the Faculty of Business Education (FBE) of the Addis Ababa University.

According to Samuel, Sunshine Construction plans to increase its road and real estate construction projects in the future. “Our basic problem is the inflation in the price of construction materials, such as steel.”

Founded 21 years ago in 1984 with 10 workers and a 10 thousand birr capital, Sunshine Construction now has 3,000 permanent and temporary workers.