Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has stated more delays are to be expected in completing the finishing works of the 361 flats built for Maldives Police Service (MPS) personnel under the POLCO project.
The POLCO project is an 8-year-old project that has been stalled for more than five years after the previous government terminated the contract with the company that was initially awarded the project. The recipients of the flats had already been announced by then, but no work has been carried out on the flats since 2016.
After several delays, the project to complete the finishing works of the POLCO flats was finally contracted by the government to Amin Construction Private Limited in December 2021. Under the project, Amin Construction is tasked with completing the finishing works of 361 flats within 8 months, at a price of USD 17.8 million.
However, speaking at the Parliament of the Maldives, Planning Minister Mohamed Aslam revealed the finishing works of POLCO flats are not expected to be completed by the given deadline. The minister said the current finishing contractor is unable to carry out the finishing works as per the schedule due to issues of the previous subcontractor that had been carrying out finishing works. He said there is a delay of about two months in actual progress, compared to planned progress of the project.
The POLCO flats, located in Hulhumale’ Phase I, are 1,100 sqft units consisting of 3 rooms each. Over 50% of the construction work of the flats had been completed when the project got stalled.