After extensive research, AIMA Construction has built and brought into service the 'Aima-21', a landing craft specially designed for sailing in Maldivian seas.
AIMA Managing Director Ibrahim Abdul Azeez (Aima Ibrahim) said that the Aima-21 is 150 feet in length and 30 feet in width. The vessel has 5,000sqft as deck space for loading goods. The vessel has a carrying capacity of 650 tonnes.
The Aima-21 is equipped with a Japanese Mitsubishi engine, and when unloaded, can travel at a speed of 10 nautical miles, which is the average speed for such vessels.
As AIMA frequently undertakes construction projects across the country, they often need to transport heavy vehicles and other heavy machinery from island to island. In light of this, the company decided to design and build a specially suited landing craft for the purpose four years ago, Ibrahim said.
The work has now concluded and Aima-21 is now ready to set sail. It's maiden trip will be to carry materials for a major project of developing nine resorts in the V. Fohtheyo lagoon.
"Sometimes it's difficult to transport our heavy equipment on barges when the seas are rough. So we usually rent better landing crafts for that purpose. So then we decided to study and build a landing craft especially suited to the seas of Maldives," Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim noted that seas such as Huvadhoo Kan'du, Kaashidhoo Kan'du, Baraveli Kan'du and Alihuras Kan'du are amongst those who get severely rough in bad weather. As such, vessels designed to sail in these seas must bear special consideration towards ensuring stability can be maintained, Ibrahim said.
"We considered all that and designed this. For example, when this landing craft is travelling empty and the seas get rough, it is equipped with a ballast system, the tanks can be weighted to maintain stability," Ibrahim explained.
A ballast system allows tanks to be filled with seawater to reduce canting, and has pumps and pipes to allow filling and emptying tanks as required.
Ibrahim said that they had decided to equip their landing craft with a ballast system as a precautionary measure following recent tragic incidents where landing crafts have capsized in Maldivian seas.
"In the past seven, eight years, there has been seven or eight such incidents of landing crafts capsizing. Very tragic incidents have occurred. So in consideration of all that, I thought it would be far better to design a vessel with all this in mind than to just import one," Ibrahim said.
Ibrahim said that the low quality of many landing crafts available for import also contributed to his decision. He said that some such vessels are built with low quality material and runs on subpar engines.
A few landing crafts are built in Maldives even now. However, this is the first time that it has been done at this scale, with the same considerations and research behind it as AIMA has.
"I believe this is the first landing craft built in the Maldives with so much research and at such a high cost," Ibrahim also opined.
The Aima-21's crew will consist of two captains and six crew members, according to Ibrahim.
Ibrahim hopes that other companies will take inspiration from this and build similar vessels suited to the Maldives' waters.
"If companies, even besides ours, start building vessels such as these, it will contribute towards the rapid development of our nation," Ibrahim said, adding that challenges faced in transporting goods across the seas is one of the most major obstacles against development.
