“Total solution” housing project to cost US$86 million

The government’s “total solution” housing scheme will cost US$86 million (MVR1.3 billion), local media reported the fisheries minister as saying.

Mohamed Shainee, who also chairs the cabinet’s economic and youth council, told Mihaaru the project will be “easily financed” as the government is already running projects worth millions of dollars on grant and loan aid from foreign countries.

The Vilimalé 2 – or ‘Hiyaa Accomplished’ – project was announced by President Abdulla Yameen as a “total solution” to overcrowding in the capital and promised a “second city” that could house almost the entire Maldivian population.

The project involves the reclamation and development of Gulhifalhu, a shallow lagoon west of Malé, and Fushidhiggaru Falhu, a shallow lagoon south of the capital. The government will give out 82,000 plots of land or flats under the project, according to the Housing Ministry.