150 hectares of land reclamation begins under Gulhifalhu second phase
192 hectares of land has already been reclaimed under the first phase of the Gulhifalhu land reclamation project.
By
Fathmath Ahmed Shareef
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih on Sunday inaugurated the second phase of land reclamation at K. Gulhifalhu, which includes the reclamation of 150 hectares of land for the development of a commercial port and the provision of land to natives of Male.
The second phase of Gulhifalhu reclamation has been awarded to Boskalis of Netherlands, which carried out the first phase as well. The company was awarded the contract in January for USD 130.4 million (MVR 2.01 billion).
A total of 150 hectares of land will be added to the reclaimed island under the second phase, Project Director Mahjub Shujau said at a ceremony held at the site on Sunday.
Under the second phase of the Gulhifalhu land reclamation project, land is being dredged to relocate the commercial port to Gulhifalhu. More than 2,000 plots of land will also be given under the Binnveriya scheme.
Gulhifalhu Port Project:
-
A port with a capacity of 400,000 containers per year is being built in Gulhifalhu
-
The port requires 80 hectares of land
-
India's Exim Bank will provide a USD 300 million (MVR 5 billion) loan for the construction of the port
-
The government has spent MVR 842 million on the master plan, consultancy work and previous dredging of the Gulhifalhu port
A total of 192 hectares of land has already been reclaimed under the first phase of the Gulhifalhu land reclamation project. The work was awarded to Boskalis without a bid for USD 53 million (MVR 817.26 million).
In addition, MTCC reclaimed 80,000 cubic metres of land for MVR 8.9 million.
The government signed a loan agreement with ABN AMRO Bank, European Export Trade Bank and ING Bank in June 2022 to dredge part of the Gulhifalhu. It is a loan of 101 million euros (MVR 1.6 billion).
