Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has revealed that work will begin this month to develop a public park after demolishing Huravee Building in Male’ City.
Speaking to PSM News, Minister of State for the Planning Ministry Akram Kamaluddeen said that the work to demolish Huravee Building was delayed due to the bad weather but is now ongoing at a rapid pace. He said that the building will soon be completely demolished and the land plot will be cleared out by the end of this month after which the development of the park will begin immediately. He said that the design work is underway and that the government plans to complete the park’s development by August. He added that the project will not damage the Old Friday mosque located near the site.
Huravee Building is a four-storey building built using coral as the main construction material, during the early years of former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration. The 35-year-old building had housed many state institutions including the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Maldives Transport Authority, Maldives Immigration, and some units of the Male' City Council. The structure had been showing signs of wear and tear, with occasional collapses of parts of the building, which had damaged motorcycles parked outside and injured some bystanders.
The decision to demolish Huravee was initially made in 2010 during the administration of former President Mohamed Nasheed. However, the plan was not implemented as there were no other buildings to transfer the government offices at the time.