Minister of Construction and Infrastructure Dr. Abdullah Muththalib says the Thila Male' Bridge project will be completed by September of 2026 as the new government looks to hasten the biggest infrastructure project undertaken in the Maldives.
Speaking at his first news conference since assuming the helm of the newly formed Infrastructure Ministry, Minister Muththalib said that there are certainly delays in the Thila Male' project.
He said that if the project had been carried out as per the original schedule, then by the 15th of this month, 81 percent would have been finished by now.
However, he said to this date only 29 percent of the project was completed.
The Minister revealed that on the 16th of this month, a day before the inauguration of the new government, the former government had signed a supplementary budget with bridge contractor AFCONS. He said that as per this budget, the project completion date has been set as 30th September 2024.
Minister Muthathalib noted that the outgoing government did not have any discussions with this government before signing off on the budget but said after viewing the agreements and documents related to the project, the new completion date is realistic.
He assured that there were no issues with the quality of the bridge infrastructure as consistent tests are done on quality management and recalibrations are made based on the results.
The Minister also said that the contractor may have underestimated the difficulty of the project but have benefitted from a learning curve.
