MVR 1.5 billion of infrastructure work awarded

Infrastructure and Planning Minister Mohamed Aslam has stated that infrastructure work worth MVR 1.5 billion from the 2.5 billion set for the year 2019 has been assigned.

The Minister stated so at the "Beelanveringe Mahaasintha" held yesterday and also stated that the actual work has not yet commenced since the projects were assigned recently. The minister also guaranteed that the work will commence within this year and continue at a rapid speed. All but one of the projects were assigned without an open bid, according to the Minister.

The Minister then spoke about the difficulties faced in conducting the infrastructure works, namely the delays faced during the tendering processes. Some of these delays were caused by parties misinforming details and has led to some tender awards being terminated and re-awarded, according to Minister Aslam.

"Due to these reasons, some projects get delayed. However, Maldivians do not want to know about the processes, they want to learn about the speed of the projects," said the Minister.

The Minister also highlighted that it was the government's responsibility to ensure that the processes were carried out transparently and that the projects were awarded to capable parties and that a fair evaluation was carried out in the process.