The Indian government has completed and handed over three major development projects conducted in Addu City under the Indian Line of Credit facility.
The Indian government has completed the land reclamation project, the beach protection project and the Hankede Bridge project in Addu City. The completion of the projects was inaugurated by the Indian Minister of External Affairs Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives Moosa Zameer and Minster of Construction and Infrastructure of Maldives Abdullah Mutalib.
A total of 184.3 hectares of land was reclaimed under the land reclamation project of Addu City. This includes 80 hectares of land from Hithadhoo, 76 hectares from Maradhoo and 3.3 hectares from Feydhoo. It also includes three islands of 8.3 hectares reclaimed for tourism and 4.72 hectares reclaimed from Hankedi. The Addu City Council has now passed the names of these islands as well.
Under the Addu Beach Protection Project, an area of 7 km was riveted and protected. The government noted that the Addu reclamation project opens the entire city to tourism and economic activities. It also says that this project will bring about positive changes to the housing problem faced by the residents of the city.
Furthermore, the Addu Four Lane Detour Link Road or Hankede Bridge is a road developed in the southwest of Hankede island allocated for tourism development. The bridge development project commenced in 2021 and was developed with four lanes.
With the completion of the project, the government has now held the ground-breaking ceremony of Hankede Integrated Tourism Development Project. This is one of the biggest tourism development projects to be undertaken in Addu City. The project will develop 1,041 rooms with 2,082 tourist beds.
The Hankede Bridge project was in conjunction with the city's road construction project, which is also near completion now. The contracts of the projects were awarded to AFCONS, the Indian company that has also been awarded the contract to build the Thilamale’ Bridge. The entire project is valued at USD 77,229