Fares-Maathodaa Airport to be completed by the end of 2021
The project was contracted to MTCC on November
While the airport is being developed 100 metres from Fares-Maathodaa, work on a bridge will be carried out parallel to the airport development work
The project to build an airport in Fares-Maathodaa island of Gaaf Dhaalu atoll is to be completed by the end of 2021.
Minister of Housing, Planning and Infrastructure, Mohamed Aslam said this during Wednesday’s parliament sitting, where he was summoned for questioning.
Responding to a question posed by the Fares-Maathodaa constituency MP, the minister said the MVR 144 million airport development work was contracted to Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) on November 10.
While the project involves building a 1.2 kilometer runway, a terminal building, and other facilities, Aslam added that the company is to begin the work before the 15th of the ongoing month.
Noting that the land has been reclaimed, cleared and is ready for base layering, Aslam said that they expect the work to completed within eight to 10 months.
While approximately 19.8 hectares of land was reclaimed from five uninhabited islands in the vicinity of Fares-Maathodaa, for the airport development project, the minister said that the work on the bridge between the island and where the airport is being built “will be carried out parallel to the airport work”. He noted that the island lies approximately 100 meters away from where the airport is being developed.
The land was reclaimed to connect the five islands -Kan’dehdhuvaa, Han’daidhvaa, Dhoonirehaa, Kaalhehuttaa and Maarehaa; the islands are part of a chain that are famous locally because people could walk across them at low tide.
The airport development project was inaugurated in August 2018, by now jailed former president Abdulla Yameen, whose administration signed a USD 2.5 million deal with the Gulf Cobbler to reclaim land.
