Court orders CMCC to pay MVR 24M to MTCC for Rasmale dredging
MTCC filed the case after several failed attempts to recover the amount outside court, including repeated efforts from February to September last year.
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The Civil Court on Thursday ordered Capital Marine and Civil Construction Company Pvt Ltd (CMCC) to pay US$1.6 million (approximately MVR 24 million) to the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) within one month.
The ruling concerns the dredging of 10 hectares of land from the Fushidhiggaru lagoon as part of the Rasmale city development project. CMCC was initially awarded the contract but subcontracted the dredging to MTCC. Despite completing the work by the agreed deadline on 25 December 2023, MTCC has not received payment.
MTCC filed the case after several failed attempts to recover the amount outside court, including repeated efforts from February to September last year.
In its response, CMCC acknowledged the debt but claimed that the delay was due to non-payment from the Housing Development Corporation (HDC). CMCC requested two years to settle the amount, stating that it would pay MTCC once funds were received from HDC.
The Civil Court rejected the request, noting that MTCC had made sufficient efforts to obtain payment outside the legal process and that further delays would be unjustified.
The Rasmale project, planned as a large-scale housing development, aims to provide 11,000 land plots and over 26,000 housing units. It is the largest housing project undertaken in the Maldives. A total of 1,009 hectares of land is to be reclaimed for the project.
As of April, 101 hectares have been reclaimed. Of this, 29 hectares were dredged by CMCC. However, HDC terminated CMCC’s contract in May last year due to delays.
Although the contract was terminated, government sources have confirmed that HDC has agreed to pay CMCC US$21 million for the 29 hectares of land already dredged.
