A model house that would showcase samples of houses that would be constructed under the billion-dollar Maldives Floating City project will be unveiled soon.
The model house was built by Bison Maldives with the help of Dutch experts working on the project.
The project's local consultant Ibrahim Riyaz told AVAS on Thursday that the model house was built a while back at a location 45-minutes away from Male' City. He said the model house would be transported and installed in the Floating City lagoon.
"If the weather permits, we are hoping to install the experience center (sample house) in the lagoon where the Floating City is being built within the next week," he said.
Riyaz added that the floating city will soon be opened to the public and that visitors can experience the floating city.
The official houses of the floating city will be built on a lagoon five minutes from Male' City. While 5,000 houses will be built on the lagoon, the prices at which the houses will be sold or when they will be opened for purchase have not been announced.
Riyaz said that if the work continues at its current pace, some of the houses will be seen in the floating city by the second quarter of next year.
The Maldives Floating City project was launched by the government of President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on March 14 last year, stemming from efforts led by former President Mohamed Nasheed during his presidency. Changes were brought to the original plans between the former government and the Dutch Dockland Company, and an agreement was signed between Dutch Dockland and the current administration on June 23 this year.
The government has given a 200-hectare lagoon near Aarah to the Dutch Dockland Company to carry out the project. The environmentally friendly city is designed with both housing and tourism components. In addition to 5,000 land plots, a yacht marina, two five-star resorts, and small picnic islands will be built under the project. A hospital, school, shopping mall, council, and government offices will also be built.
