The president of Maldives, Abdullah Yameen gave hope to the infrastructural development of Maldives with the revelation of a monolithic dredger getting built abroad - that would change the face of land reclamation projects in Maldives.
The news of a large scale inception of a mountainous dredger made headlines with several local media outlets coining the innovative push as a significantly favorable aspect in Maldivian development field. This had put several Maldivians, including myself in hope that surmounting expenses in such projects would be drastically cut off when our country's inventory will house such a powerful machinery that would not only bring about change to the land reclamation projects throughout the country, but also alleviate unsuspecting overheads.
Titled "Mahaa Jarraaf" the dredger's construction kicked-off in China, while it seemed the arrival of the vessel was weeks away from us. The large vessel has gone through all of this developmental life-cycle stages, and touched the salty sea.
This was months ago, and Maldivians kept their fingers crossed for the promising arrival of the dredger. According to an earlier statement from Maldives Transport and Contracting Company's (MTCC) head Ibrahim Ziyath "work is underway to bring Mahaa Jarraaf to Maldives. We will be welcoming the vessel within a month and half."
MTCC's cheque-book registered an amount of USD 36 million dollars into the making of the dredger, with Holland's IHC taking the responsibility of crafting the vessel at China's "Nang-Ton Rainbow Marine Technology Boat Yard."
The "Mahaa Jarraaf" boasts the capability of dredging from 50 meter underwater - with a 90 meter in length, the dredging beast could easily collect a whopping 3700 cubic meter of sand.
Meanwhile, the head honcho of MTCC, Ziyath has noted the importance and the significance of the vessel, highlighting how the dredger will be used in mega developmental projects in Male' as well as overseas.
The idea of a behemoth dredger becoming an in-house item of the Maldivian infrastructural field was all sugar and honey until the owner company's head, Ziyath had once again shattered the hopes of the thousands of citizens in Maldives - stating the unprecedented delay was due to trials and tests regarding the vessel's capacity and caliber.
His statement came as back as April 11 of the current year.
While the transition of the monumental dredger from the boatyard into the sea has been as smooth as the butter you apply in the morning bread, everyone back in home nation had expected no further ado in its arrival - but expectations can be disappointing.
Since recent rumors across the mill had stressed on MTCC falling short in settling payments for the completed product - the dredger in this case of course. Shortly after these rumors sparked, Ziyath rebutted these claims as baseless affirming the unexpected delay did not rise from transaction issues but because of some amendments to clauses in the Chinese constitution.
With several land reclamation projects, reef and bay depth adjustments for resort development projects underway and considerable projects out of them finding a completion date, many are starting to question about the sweet dream of finding the monolithic "Mahaa Jarraaf" in our own backyard.
