Minister of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Mohamed Aslam has stated the land reclamation project for Ungoofaaru, Raa Atoll, will begin on schedule in June next year. He made the statement while responding to questions at the Parliament of the Maldives regarding the delay in commencing the fieldwork for the project.
Parliamentarian Mohamed Waheed asked Minister Aslam why the project has not begun despite its funding being allocated in the state budget for the past two years. He noted that reclaiming land in Ungoofaaru is a pledge of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih and that a contractor has already been chosen for the project, but that fieldwork has not yet begun despite other such projects having already commenced.
Responding to the question, Minister Aslam highlighted that Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) has formulated a schedule, which has placed the commencement of the Ungoofaaru reclamation project for June next year. He noted that MTCC has four dredgers, and that one is a hopper suction dredger while the other three are cutter suction dredgers. He said that land reclamation in Ungoofaaru will require the use of the hopper suction dredger, which is already scheduled to be used for seven other projects. He gave further details of the schedule and said that different projects have different priorities based on the need for land and that the schedule is needed to allocate the use of the dredgers for the projects at specific dates.
MTCC was contracted to complete the land reclamation project in Ungoofaaru under a design and build policy in January last year. The state-owned company is tasked with reclaiming 10 hectares of land as well as constructing 1,150m of revetment and 75m of groin for the shore protection of the island. The state-owned company is tasked with completing the project within 240 days at a cost of USD4.9 million.