Giraavaru reclamation underway for Male natives land

Work has begun to reclaim land from K. Giraavaru lagoon to provide land to natives of Male under the government's Binveriya scheme, housing minister Mohamed Aslam said on Monday.

The government has raised financing to reclaim and develop a residential city in K. Giraavaru lagoon by selling a lagoon and island in the northern Noonu atoll to a foreign company for $27 million (MVR 416 million).

President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih issued a decree issued on December 16, declaring the project to be a cross-subsidised project to build a residential city there. Under the project:

Following Aslam's confirmation at a press conference held at the President's Office on Monday to release the provisional list of recipients of land under the Binveriya scheme, ruling MDP activists circulated photos on social media that show reclamation works ongoing at Giraavaru lagoon. 

The Binnveriya scheme is designed to allot land from Male for natives of the capital city. The Gedhoruveriya scheme is meant to provide flats to natives as well as residents who have lived in Male for over 15 years.

Earlier, the housing ministry had said that around 36,000 applications had been received for the two schemes:

Under the Binveriya scheme, the land will be allotted by reclaiming Hulhumale and Gulhifalhu as well as Giraavaru lagoon. The total size of the land earmarked for allotment under the scheme is 3.7 million sqft. According to the ministry, the number of plots to be allotted will be decided based on the size of the plot to be allotted to individual applications selected for allotment.