Posted on January 7, 2026
Reclamation of land for the HA. Dhihdhoo Airport commenced yesterday with one of the world’s largest trailing suction hopper dredgers, which was brought by Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).
Land reclamation for housing and airport development on the island of Dhihdhoo, which has a population of over 3000, is a pledge of President Dr Mohamed Muizzu. The project to reclaim land in line with this pledge was handed over to MACL.
The land reclamation project commenced in Dhihdhoo yesterday afternoon with a special ceremony held at 4pm. The project was officially inaugurated by Finance Minister Moosa Zameer.
Accompanying the minister at the ceremony were MACL CEO and Managing Director Ibrahim Shareed Mohamed, MACL Deputy Managing Director Mujuthaba Latheef, Dhihdhoo constituency MP Abdul Latheef Mohamed and Dhihdhoo Council President Abdulla Rasheed.
For the project, MACL has brought in a trailing suction hopper dredger called the Leiv Eiriksson. The dredger has the capacity to dredge 46,000 square meters at a time and is one of the two most high-tech and powerful dredgers of the kind in the world currently, MACL said.
MACL will be dredging 111 hectares of land in Dhihdhoo under this project.
During his most recent visit to Dhihdhoo, the President assured that a domestic airport would be developed on the island in line with his campaign pledge. He expressed hopes that the airport development project would be completed during this term.
