Rasmalé land reclamation faces temporary slowdown

The Maldives’ President, Dr. Mohamed Muizzu, said today that approximately 60 percent of the land reclamation for Rasmalé has been completed, and the entire project will be finalized within this year.

Muizzu explained that the Rasmalé reclamation project experienced a temporary slowdown due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. He also acknowledged that the project could not meet its originally scheduled completion date, citing rising fuel costs as the primary driver behind the delay, but noted that the operations are now restarting.

The Rasmalé project was inaugurated on December 18, 2023.

The extensive land reclamation program is being executed across 11 designated sites, aiming to reclaim a total of 1,009 hectares of land. The work has been contracted to the Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL).

To facilitate the operations, MACL has deployed the Cristóbal Colón, one of the largest dredgers in the world, which possesses the capacity to extract 46,000 cubic meters of sand at once.