The Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) lost income of MVR 510 million and spent MVR 47 million on operational costs as its dredger Mahaa Jarraafu remained unutilized for a long period, the company has said.
The majority government-owned MTCC said in a press release yesterday that Mahaa Jarraafu was kept unused for 571 days since June 8, 2022. This was 19 months during which land reclamation was carried out by leasing foreign dredgers, the company said.
Mahaa Jarraafu's condition deteriorated and became inoperable due to the failure to carry out scheduled repair and maintenance, the new management that took charge of the company with Managing Director Abdulla Ziyad alleged.
As a result, income that could have been earned from land reclamation declined, according to the statement.
"While a total of 571 days passed without using Mahaa Jarraafu, more than MVR 47 million needed to be spent during this period as operational expenses. And financial records show that MVR 510 million was lost as income," the statement read.
The new management paid attention to repairing Mahaa Jarraafu and redeploying the dredger for land reclamation projects, it added. The vessel is currently dredging for the Ungoofaru land reclamation project, MTCC said.
MTCC was contracted to add 13.07 hectares of land to Ungoofaru for MVR 71 million at a rate of MVR 5.4 million per hectare.
