The Maldivian government has on Wednesday announced the termination of its contract with India’s TATA Housing to develop flats in capital city Malé.

Housing Minister Mohamed Muizzu announced at an event on Wednesday afternoon that the company had been given a 90-day notice to proceed with incomplete phases of the construction. The termination is the result of TATA’s failure to do so, the minister said. 

Further, local media sources claim Muizzu said the flats that have already been constructed were of ‘extremely poor quality’. 

An official from Tata Housing based in Malé City is responded to the minister's announcement by saying that the company had fulfilled all the conditions of Of its contract with the government.

In 2016, after the government had announced that it was considering penalizing TATA for delays in the project, the Housing Development Corporation had drawn lots to assign said flats. The flats, each with three rooms and two bathrooms, already had over 200 registered recipients. 

TATA was hired to construct 280 flats in two separate sites in the capital in 2010. However, the project was at a longstanding halt owing to contractual issues. 

The company announced that it was going forth with it in September 2016.