Minister of Economic Development Mohamed Saeed says that President Abdulla Yameen’s pledge to construct an airport in Kulhudhuffushi will be fulfilled before 2018.
Minister Saeed said this in an interview given to Kulhudhuffushi Online during his ongoing visit to the HDh. atoll.
“I can confidently say that the President’s pledge to establish an airport in Kulhudhuffushi will be fulfilled before 2018,” said Saeed.
Although Saeed said that the pledge will be fulfilled before 2018, President Yameen had promised during the 2013 Presidential Elections that the airport will be built within two years of his Presidency. That deadline will end in November.
President Yameen’s pledge was also made while works were ongoing to build an airport in neighboring HDh. Hanimadhoo and to turn it into an international airport by the then-President Dr. Mohamed Waheed’s government.
The current government suggests that there will be no issues in building an airport in Kulhudhuffushi while one already exists in Hanimadhoo.
The Kulhudhuffushi airport will be built by clearing land as well as drying part of a lake. A Ministry team has already surveyed the land where the airport will be built on.
The government has decided to lease an uninhabited island for 50 years to the company that will construct the airport, and to lease the airport to the construction company for 25 years if the company wishes. The project notice stated that the project will run as a financial contract and there is no information suggesting that the policy has changed.
Four companies have shown their interest in the project after its announcement but none has been chosen as of yet.
Kulhudhuffushi Council administration has informed that Minister Saeed has made the same guarantee to them as well.
The Council administration said that the latest notice or letter given to them by the government regarding the airport issue was earlier last year. They said that the letter requested information on the land where the airport will constructed and on the compensation costs. The Council administration added that they had had given them the information at around the same time.
“We haven’t recieved any news on the airport project after that time. We don’t know how it’s going.” said an official of the council administration.
The Council had expressed their concern for the lack of progress in the project previously as well.