India-funded Rasdhoo coastal protection project inaugurated

A coastal protection project has been inaugurated in Rasdhoo island of Alif Alif atoll on Saturday.

Funded under the Indian Grant Assistance, the project is contracted to the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) for a total of MVR eight million.

The government of Maldives will be contributing MVR 5.3 million to the project which will be under the supervision of the Ministry of National Planning and Infrastructure.

Indian High Commissioner, Sunjay Sudhir inaugurated the project on Saturday at an event which was addressed by the Planning Minister, Mohamed Aslam and MTCC CEO Adam Azim.

Under the project, MTCC is contracted to provide coastal protection to a stretch of land facing severe coastal erosion measuring 214 meters.

Further, it also includes beach refill, which includes cleaning up waste debris, replacing sand and constructing a groyne field.

Rasdhoo constituents and the island council’s recommendation were taken for the scope and design of the project.

The region included in the project was earlier used as a landfill and it faces coastal erosion after the waste buried underneath resurfaced.

The funds come under the grant assistance provided by the Indian government of USD 6.9 million (MVR 106 million) during the country’s External Affairs Minister’s visit in March 2019.

It aims to conduct socio-economic development projects across the country which are of high impact to the Maldivian people.