Kuwait Fund grants additional USD 50 million loan for VIA expansion project

Kuwait Fund has granted an additional USD 50 million loan to Maldives for its project to expand and upgrade Velana International Airport.

The loan agreement was signed by Maldivian Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer and Kuwait Fund’s Deputy Director General for Admin and Finance Affairs, Nedhal A Al-Olayan on Monday morning.

According to Finance Ministry, the Kuwait Fund, under Monday’s agreement, will loan 15 million Kuwaiti Dinar – which amounts to USD 49.95 million (MVR 770 million).

The MVR 1.2 billion project to expand and upgrade Maldives’ main gate was launched during former President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom’s administration. The project involves building a new passenger terminal, fuel farm, cargo terminal, VIP building, and seaplane terminal.

The runway is complete, while the fuel farm – which will increase jet fuel storage capacity from 15 million liters to 45 million liters, petrol storage capacity to 100,000 liters, and diesel storage capacity to 1 million liters and replace fuel bowsers with a modern fuel hydrant system - is near completion.

Kuwait Fund had also granted a USD 50 million loan for the project to expand and upgrade VIA back in 2016.