The Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure has begun relocating government offices to the newly developed office building in Hulhumale'.
The government decided to develop an office building in Hulhumale' in 2019 in order to find a solution to the problem of many ministries having to rent their own premises indefinitely. The ministry said it aims to open the building by January 15 after the relocation process.
The planning ministry awarded the contract to China's Hunan Engineering Corporation Limited to construct the office building within one year at a cost of USD12 million. The company started construction of the office building in February 2020. However, the construction was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The six-storey office building constructed on an area of 25,000sqft will consist of a parking area on the ground floor and the first floor, the offices will be located from the second to the fifth floor, and the top floor of the building will hold small meeting rooms, a seminar room, and a terrace.
The planning ministry said the shortage of government office buildings was mainly due to the fact that the Huravee Building was unusable and the engineers had advised that the building was not safe for use. As such, Huravee Building has now been demolished and a park has been developed on the plot.