The government's flagship Rasmale' land reclamation project was launched without sourcing enough sand, Construction Minister Dr. Abdulla Muththalib has said.
At a press conference today, Muththalib said the Rasmale' reclamation work began without surveying a large area for sand borrowing. The plan had been to find sand after starting the reclamation, he said.
"However, what they're informing us now is that they need to conduct a more extended sand search campaign because there is not enough sand at the borrow site to continue [the reclamation work]," the minister said.
Despite the Rasmale' reclamation currently not going ahead, the minister said it was not right to say that the work has stalled. Work is ongoing on building the bound wall, he said.
In addition to the lack of sand, as the contractor for the Rasmale' reclamation project, Boskalis, is also reclaiming Gulhifalhu and has brought only one dredger to the Maldives, the minister said the company could only do the Rasmale' reclamation work after completing Gulhifalhu.
"The dredger that Boskalis is using at the moment to reclaim Gulhifalhu, that's only one dredger. They're thinking of moving the dredger after using it to reclaim Gulhifalhu. Because bringing a new dredger would be costly since it's not a project that the state is spending on," Minister Muththalib said.
As a result of the government's efforts to begin the Rasmale' project as soon as possible, Muththalib said the agreement was signed with the contractor without requirements for any advance payments. Therefore, the project would be funded through the sale of land provided to the contractor, he noted.
"So we believe they're thinking of using the dredger here in order to reduce costs. That is the main reason that dredging is not going ahead at the moment," Muththalib said.
This year's budget initially included MVR 400 million allocated for the Rasmale' project. However, after Parliament removed the funds from the budget, the government started the project through the Housing Developing Corporation (HDC).
Work on reclaiming 1,153 hectares from the 1,280-hectare lagoon south of Male' with a target of completion in eight months began without an environment impact assessment (EIA) for the whole lagoon. An EIA was only done for the 29-hectare site J.
The President said reclamation of the massive area would be completed in eight months with the cost to be covered by 70 hectares of land pledged to the Sri Lankan contractor Capital Marine and Construction Company (CMCC), including 10 hectares from Hulhumale' and 60 hectares from the land to be reclaimed from the Fushidhiggaru lagoon.
