The Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives, Mr Sunjay Sudhir has given his insight into the development projects currently underway in the Maldives.
In an exclusive interview with MV+, Mr Sudhir briefly spoke about the ongoing projects in the Maldives that the Indian High Commission was assisting with. When asked, he explained that there was more to it than meets the eye.
“There are two dimensions to it,” said the High Commissioner. “One is definitely the scale of the projects. We have a lot of projects that are high-impact, directed towards local communities. Expenditure for those types of projects is typically half a million US dollars.”
“At the same time, we’ve got much bigger infrastructure projects. Gulhifalhu Port, Hanimaadhoo Airport, Gan Airport, Greater Male Connectivity project, MIFCO expansion, the Addu road project, building a cancer hospital, and even constructing cricket stadium in Hulhumale’.”
According to Mr. Sudhir, all of the projects are moving well. The prequalification of the contractors is done, and the tender processes are underway. In terms of the scale, he noted that there is a huge range. The second dimension to these projects, in terms of geographic distribution, also has a huge range, emphasized the High Commissioner.
“If you start from Hoarafushi, there is a freshwater bottling plant, which is being carried out under the high-impact community development projects. If you go to Addu, there are three island fisheries plants, five ecotourism plants, in addition to the large-scale Addu road project. In terms of geographical distribution, these projects are spread all across the country. ”
The High Commissioner went on and said that the idea behind this was to promote the decentralization efforts by the Maldivian government.
“When it comes to Indian projects, under an Indian line of credit, our scheme is very transparent and user-driven. The priorities are clearly set by the Maldivian government, and we come in to help out with the implementation. The tendering processes, the contractor selection processes, they are all done by the Maldivian government. But we are here to partner with them in these projects.”
He concluded by saying that once the larger infrastructure projects get moving, it will provide a further boost to the Maldivian economy.
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