Posted on July 16, 2025
The USD 35 million (MVR 539 million) dredging project of Giraavarufalhu and Hulhumale’ 3 has seen no developments and as such, a request to void the project has been sent to the Attorney General’s Office (AG) as stated last night by Infrastructure Minister Dr. Abdulla Muththalib.
Last night’s Ahaa Forum hosted by PSM saw Muththalib answer a question posed by a citizen when discussing the dredging topic, and that the project was given to the same contractor over the last two government cycles, namely Sri Lanka’s Capital Marine and Civil Construction (CMCC).
The project to dredge 160 hectares of land as Giraavaru was given by Maldives Fund Management Corporation, with the 63 hectare dredging project of Hulhumale’ 3 being given by HDC.
Muththalib has stated that the Giraavarufalhu land has to be distributed at the same speed the Gulhifalhu land was distributed. He went on to say that even though the registry of people who have changed from Giraafalhu to Gulhifalhu has begun, the dredging project of Hulhumale’ Phase 3 and Giraavaru has not been finished.
The previous government had announced that there would be 5,000 plots to be given to Male’ residents after dredging land for Hulhumale, Gulhifalhu and Giraavarufalhu. 1,000 plots were allocated from Hulhumale’, with 2,000 being allocated from Gulhifalhu and GIraavarufalhu respectively.
The Minister has stated that the previous administration had given two advances to the contractor, totaling USD 20 million (MVR 308 million). Due to the nature of the agreement, the contractors had demanded that they be paid for the work that had already been done including the advance payments, said Muththalib.
In an effort to keep the project going and for work to continue, the current government had given the contractor an additional USD 15 million. However, due to them not receiving their desired amount, the project had come to a standstill.
“As per our assessments, dredging had been completed that would total USD 20 million. Even with the advance payment of USD 20 million, along with their request of an additional USD 15 million, work on the project still hasn’t moved forward,” said Muththalib.
He went on to say that a request had been sent to the AG office to void the agreement with CMCC, with no solution in sight.
Muththalib has stated that the government is working towards an amicable end to voiding the contract. He went on to reference previous experiences and said that CMCC wrote up the contracts with them being voided in the future in mind. After that, they file for arbitration to seek compensation damages caused and get large sums of money, he said.
He further stated that the agreement should be voided with the outlined clauses in mind, otherwise it might end up causing loss to the government.
“The government is working towards terminating the agreement as soon as possible so that we can start working on Giraavaru,” said Muththalib.
