Sixteen islands being reclaimed for wide-scale tourism project in Gaafaru lagoon

Maldives Fund Management Corporation (MFMC) has decided to proceed a wide scale tourism project across the lagoon of Kaafu atoll Gaafaru which is located approximately 6.1km away from Male' City.

Sixteen islands will be reclaimed from the lagoon under this project and MFMC has contracted the reclamation and revetment construction of these islands to the Maldivian company, Atoll Works Private Limited today.

The Corporation stated that 14 private islands and two luxury resorts will be developed under this agreement. An additional 40 hectares is also set to be reclaimed from Gaafaru within this project.

This wide-scale project that will reclaim a total of 106.91 hectares of land marks the first instance where such a large number of islands are reclaimed in a single lagoon in Kaafu atoll at once.

The reclamation and revetment affixation is estimated to cost an expenditure of USD 36 million with 3 million cubic meters of sand deemed to be required for the reclamation. Employing a rate of USD 7.8 per cubic meter, MFMC revealed that a total amount of USD 29,232,774 will predictably be expended on the reclamation.

The company stated that this number is a significantly lower amount in comparison to other reclamation projects currently ensuing across the country.

The system determined to remunerate the contractor is through the contractor-financing approach wherein the contractor will proceed reclamation without an advance payment and collect income through long-term lease of the islands following its completion.

The State had assigned the Gaafaru lagoon to MFMC in order to develop the region within an Integrated Tourism Development concept. While the conceptual master plan for the lagoon's development has now concluded, this is the first ever project initiated by the Maldivian government that will develop private islands under an Integrated Tourism Development concept and contract them for long-term lease.