Official work on Velana International Airport's (VIA) new seaplane terminal commenced on Monday.
The new seaplane terminal developed at the east side of Hulhule' island was inaugurated by Economic Minister Mohamed Saeed.
Minister Saeed was accompanied by Managing Director of Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL) Adil Moosa and General Manager of China' BUCG Li Daosong along with Chinese Ambassador to Maldives Zheng Liz Hong in inaugurating the new terminal at VIA.
The project includes reclamation of a total of 3.2 hectare land area from the east end of Hulhumale' - which was finalized on June 2017. The entire project values up to USD 40 million (MVR 616 million).
MACL's Managing Director Adil Moosa, on the inauguration ceremony highlighted Maldives in possession of the largest operating seaplane terminal in Maldives, adding that in experience the country comes second to none.
MD Moosa said of the various developmental projects running in the international airport island, which would see the international arrival/departure terminal stretching to accommodate a traffic of roughly 7 million people.
The new seaplane terminal will be twice larger than the existing one at Velana International Airport while it will be developed with the capacity to stretch-out to cater plane porting.
Adil Moosa assured the new cargo terminal works will commence on January 31 while the fuel farm and VIP complexes will start sometime in next month.
Development of the new seaplane terminal was assigned to BUCG which is also responsible for the airport's runway expansion.
