The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the government's flagship project has stated that the reclamation of Fushidhiggaru lagoon for Rasmale' city cannot be completed by the second deadline announced by President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.
At the inauguration of the project on December 18 last year, President Muizzu announced that the reclamation would be completed within eight months. The duration ended on August 18 and only one site of Rasmale' was reclaimed during that period.
Before the August 18 deadline, President Muizzu said the project needed eight more months for completion. The second deadline announced at the Independence Day ceremony ends on March 26, 2025.
The only work that has proceeded so far is 29 hectares of Site J. The EIA has been done for seven other sites by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) late last month.
Satellite image from September 2.
According to the EIA, the Housing Development Corporation (HDC), the state-owned company carrying out the project, said it would take a total of 18 months or one and a half years to reclaim the 256 hectares at the seven new sites. The earliest completion date is March 3, 2026.
A total of more than 1,150 hectares of the Fushidhiggaru lagoon is planned to be reclaimed under the plan for the project.
The EIA report states that the reclamation of the new sites should have started last month. However, the work has not started yet. Monday's satellite images show that the work has not started on the new sites.
The project was first awarded to Capital Marine and Civil Construction (CMCC). The Fushidhiggaru land reclamation started with CMCC to be awarded 10 hectares from Hulhumale' and 60 hectares from the land to be reclaimed from the lagoon. The land is worth MVR 45 billion.
While the agreement with CMCC has been terminated, President Muizzu said the reclamation work will be handed over to various companies.
HDC has now taken out a huge loan to hand over the land reclamation of Rasmale' to an Indian company and a Chinese company after the initial plan for the Rasmale reclamation project failed.
Sites D, G and L were awarded to Mohan Mutha Exports (MME) of India. The remaining four sites, A, B, H, I and K, were awarded to China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC),
