Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) has confirmed that it will proceed with the reclamation of 26 hectares of land for Haa Alifu atoll Dhidhdhoo, following the terms of the original agreement.
The government contracted MTCC for the land reclamation on September 27.
Recently, Dhidhdhoo Council's President, Abdulla Rasheed, said that he was notified by senior officials at the MTCC project site on the island about plans to trim the project by omitting 10 hectares from the total land area to be reclaimed.
Rasheed said that he was informed by site supervisors that MTCC will reclaim a total of 16 hectares instead of the originally agreed area.
The council president had submitted a letter of inquiry to the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure to clarify the reason for trimming the scope of the land reclamation project.
MTCC CEO Adam Azim has stepped forward to refute this claim, and said that the contractor has not reduced the reclamation area from 26 hectares.
"We did not reduce the land reclamation scope, we simply changed our dredger. We previously used our largest dredger which has been replaced by a different one. We have received instruction that the land will be reclaimed according to the agreement without omitting said 10 hectares," Azim said.
MTCC has already reclaimed 16 hectares of land for the island.
Government contracted the reclamation project at a cost of MVR 83.07 million.
The project scope also includes the construction of a 1,150-meter boundary wall, reclamation of 623,968 cubic meters of area with an additional 10,962 cubic meters of beach reclamation, construction of a 916-meter bioswale trench, and installation of geo-textiles in the same trench.