Ihavandhipolhu port after land reclamation: Fayyaz
STO is in talks with international oil companies to start bunkering services and is looking for investment.
By
Mariyam Umna Ismail
Economic minister Fayyaz Ismail has said on Monday that even though the bunkering services were planned to start earlier this year for vessels at Ihavandhipolhu in the northernmost part of the country, the work will resume only after the land for the planned transshipment in the area is acquired.
Until a transshipment port is established in the north, it is requested to facilitate sustainable delivery of services to the cargo boats passing through the region. Responding to a question by Horafushi MP Ahmed Saleem in June last year on a resolution passed by the councils of Horafushi, Thuraakunu and Uligam, Fayyaz had said at the time:
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A working group has been set up to identify the services that can be provided in the area and work has begun
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MPL, transport ministry and other agencies are working closely to set up the necessary building and facilities for the services that can be provided at the earliest after discussions, such as crew change services, ship stores and supply
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Expects to roll out these services in the first half of the current financial year
With the first quarter of the current financial year just a few days away, the ministry has not been able to launch the services in Ihavandipolhu as was expected at the time. In a written reply to MP Saleem's question, Fayyaz said:
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STO is in talks with international oil companies to start bunkering services and is looking for investment
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Land required for the first phase of the Port City project will be acquired in a time-bound manner and the services will be provided from the site; he did not give any specific date
"Instead of making investments as a transition agreement in another island in the same region, the government's current focus is to start land acquisition for the Ihavandipolhu Port City project quickly and to provide services that can be provided under the strategic location advantage of Ihavandhipolhu," he said.
"We are working with the authorities concerned to bring in necessary amendments to the rules to provide these services," he said.
