During the ceremony held to inaugurate the Fushidhiggaru project, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu claimed that work would progress uninterrupted.
But in an interview with Public Service Media (PSM) on Thursday night, the President acknowledged that work has stalled on the government's flagship project.
However, at the inauguration ceremony on December 18, 2023, Muizzu said the reclamation would be completed in eight months and work would go uninterrupted.
"Work will start today, will continue uninterrupted, and in about eight months reclamation will be complete. The 1,153 hectares of land is about three times the size of the two phases of Hulhumale'," he said.
The President's speech is still published on the President's Office website.
About 10 hectares have been reclaimed so far. -- Photo: Mirash Nashim/ Adhadhu
Three months after the project began, Muizzu on Thursday blamed the Parliament for the stalling. He noted that MVR 400 million included in the state budget for the project was removed by the Parliament.
“The Parliament is not working with the intention of doing things for the people. That is why it has been delayed. However, under the agreement signed with the HDC, reclamation will begin again very soon,” he said.
Despite the President's remarks, the project was launched after the Parliament removed the MVR 400 million from the budget. Housing Development Corporation (HDC) Managing Director Ibrahim Fazul Rasheed also said the state will not be spending any amount on the project.
The eight-month deadline for reclamation under the project is October 18. So far, about 10 hectares of land have been reclaimed. This land was reclaimed during the first week after the project was launched.
Aside from 29 hectares at the first reclamation site J, no other area has been reclaimed, photos and videos taken by Adhadhu on February 1 and February 22 showed. A dredger could no longer be seen in the video taken on February 22.
Marine vessel tracking websites confirmed that a dredger was not active in the area. A dredger could not be seen either at the sand borrowing site designated in the EIA (environment impact assessment) report.
If work had progressed in line with the schedule in the EIA for the Rasmale' project, the reclamation of site J would have been completed last month by the dredger that started the project.
The timeframe estimated in the EIA for building the bound wall and levelling the ground was between 60 to 75 days.
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.
