The world's largest dredger has been brought to the Maldives to speed up the reclamation work in Fushidhiggaru lagoon for President Mohamed Muizzu's flagship Rasmale' project.

Muizzu announced the arrival of the dredger Cristóbal Colón, operated by Jan De Nul, on a post on social media X on Monday. It arrived on November 30 and began work on December 1.

Currently, the largest trailer suction hopper dredger in the world, it can haul up to 78,000 tonnes of sand per trip. The dredger is capable of extracting sand from a depth of 155 metres.

Muizzu said the dredger will triple the speed of the project and believes the land reclamation can be completed by March 2026.

"I went to see the Rasmale' reclamation site recently. It is progressing at a fast pace. When new dredgers join next month and the speed becomes three times faster, the reclamation will be completed in five months," he claimed during a visit to the project site in November.

Photo: Vessel Finder

The project was launched on December 18, 2023. Muizzu first said the project will be completed in eight months after reclaiming 1,153 hectares of land. But the vast majority of the past two years passed without any work.

But on July 27, 2024, Muizzu said the government needs eight more months to complete reclamation. This deadline was March 27, 2025.

Muizzu announced a third deadline during the presidential address in February 2025. He claimed that reclamation would be completed before the end of 2025.

The latest images from the Sentinel-2 satellite show that about 200 hectares of land have been reclaimed so far. This accounts for just 18 percent of the total land to be reclaimed.

The government initially awarded the project to Capital Marine and Civil Construction (CMCC). But the agreement was later cancelled.

The Housing Development Corporation (HDC) took out a huge loan and has now awarded the project to India's Mohan Mutha Exports (MME) and China's China Railway Construction Corporation (CRCC) and CHEC.

Muizzu first said the government would complete the reclamation without any expenditure from the state budget. But last August, he ordered the advance payment to be made using the state budget.

It has also been revealed that a USD 600 million loan will be taken through three SOEs to finance the project.