Gulhi Falhu: Land reclamation work completed

The reclamation of 150 hectares of land under the Gulhi Falhu project has been completed on Monday, 15th April.

The project was initiated during former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih's administration to provide land plots to Male' residents. The work was contracted to Netherlands company Boskalis. At the time, an announcement was made that land would be allocated to 5000 persons from Gulhi Falhu, however reclamation of the land remained largely incomplete by the time the administration came to an end.

As a result, land was issued then only from the portion of land that had been reclaimed by then.

Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure confirmed that the dredging and reclamation work has now reached completion.

Minister Abdulla Muththalib posted on X that currently shore protection work is being undertaken.

In 2019, an agreement was entered into with Boskalis to reclaim 65 hectares of land at a cost of MVR 2 billion.

However, President Dr Mohamed Muizzu added another 85 hectares on to the Gulhi Falhu reclamation project, increasing the total area to 150 hectares. All this land has now been reclaimed.

Earlier, High Court issued a temporary order to halt the Gulhi Falhu project in response to a case lodged by an individual claiming the project was causing irreversible environmental damage. The State appealed the order at the Supreme Court, which issued a stay of implementation of the High Court order. A final verdict on the case is yet to be reached.

The government has also brought changes to the land use plans of both Gulhi Falhu and Giravaru Falhu. With the changes to the Giravaru Falhu land use plan resulting in decreasing the number of land plots that can be issued from the location, 1347 of the recipients will be issued land from Gulhi Falhu instead.