Two of the world's largest dredgers have been activated for land reclamation projects in the Maldives.

One of the dredgers is the Cristóbal Colón, operated by Jan De Nul of Belgium. The second one, Leiv Eiriksson, is also operated by the same company. The two dredgers are capable of carrying 78,000 tonnes of sand.

Cristóbal Colón is reclaiming land for Rasmale' at the Fushidhiggaru lagoon, while Leiv Eiriksson began work at the land reclamation site for Haa Alif Dhidhdhoo airport two days ago.

The costs for these dredgers are covered through the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL). The company set up two subsidiaries last year to carry out major land reclamation projects. They are Peninsular Infrastructure and Marine and Integrated Infrastructure Development.

MACL did not disclose the cost of hiring the dredgers. But information from various sources puts the figure at between USD 80,000 and USD 100,000 a day for each dredger.

Based on these figures, MACL would have to spend USD 160,000 (MVR 2.4 million) to charter two dredgers at the lowest price. That's USD 4.8 million (MVR 74 million) per month.

There are concerns over the lack of transparency surrounding the costs and the environmental impacts of land reclamation. Both the north and south of Male' atoll are experiencing murky waters because of ongoing projects in Rasmale' and Hulhumale' Phase 3.

In addition to these two dredgers, Prins der Nederlanden and Oranje from Boskalis of the Netherlands are also in the Maldives. The two dredgers are capable of carrying 40,000 tonnes of sand. Adhadhu understands that they will be used to reclaim Giraavarufalhu after completing the project in Hulhumale'.

Jun Yang 1 from China's CCCC Guangzhou Dredging Company, with the same carrying capacity as the Boskalis dredgers, is also in the Maldives. It is reclaiming sites in Rasmale' which were handed over to China Harbor Engineering Corporation (CHEC).