President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih has officially launched a large-scale land reclamation project in southernmost Addu City.
The project was launched at a special ceremony held in Maradhoo, Addu City, on Saturday evening as part of the President's ongoing visit to Addu.
The project agreement was signed with Van Oud Dredging of the Netherlands on March 27 last year. The work was awarded to be completed within 18 months. The project aims to expand the land area of Addu City and fortify the area's coastal protection, with a substantial investment of MVR 1.5 billion allocated to the project.
The project will dredge 194.3 hectares of land and protect 11 km of beach. The land reclamation project will be implemented under an $800 million line of credit facility provided by EXIM Bank of India.
The scope of the project includes:
Dredging of 90 hectares of land in Hithadhoo
Dredging of 23.3 hectares of land from Hulhumeedhoo
Dredging of two five-hectare islands for tourism near Hulhumeedhoo
Dredging of 76 hectares of land from Maradhoo / Maradufeydhoo
Dredging of two islands of 8.3 hectares and two islands of 3.3 hectares for tourism in Maradhoo / Maradhoofeydhoo lagoon
Dredging of three islands of 8.3 hectares and two islands of 3.3 hectares for tourism
The project includes the construction of a link road to connect the dredged areas. The majority of the work on the four-lane link road has already been completed.
After inaugurating the project, President Solih said that the dredging project marks the commencement of practical development work in Addu City as a strong and vibrant city open to the world.
"The development of Addu City as a thriving international hub was only refined to discussions in the past. However, with this huge land expansion project, the transformational development of Addu City has commenced in practice," he said.
The President said 190 hectares of land would be added to the city under the MVR 1.5 billion land expansion project. At the same time, another project worth MVR 179 million will be implemented to add 42 hectares of land to Hulhumeedhoo.
