Authorities move platform that ran aground on a reef

The platform that ran aground a patch of reef in Villimale' during the construction of the ThilaMale' bridge a week ago, has been moved.

An official of the Environment Ministry said to RaajjeMV that the platform had been moved around 12:30pm on Saturday. And the damage to the reef from the platform will be assessed very soon. The previous deadline to remove the platform had not been met.

The company in charge the project Afcons Ltd. said the platforms had not been recovered due to the weather conditions around that time. The Self-elevating platform ran aground the reef due to the harsh weather and the strong currents. They said that the incident happened in the process of fixing the platform and laying it down.

There had been a lot of public criticism following the damages to the reef after the failure to remove the platforms on time.

Following the platform incident the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure EPA as well as Afcons had conducted a meeting to discuss solutions. Moreover, the parliament has received an emergency motion regarding the damages to the reef as well.

The representative Parliament member for Villimale' had submitted the motion regarding the great damage to the reef from the platform. He followed it up saying there should be a quality control system by representatives of the organizations to prevent a repetition of such an incident.