Fisheries Minister: Dhidhdhoo ice plant will be operational next year

Fisheries Minster Dr. Hussain Rasheed Hassan states the project to build an ice plant in HA. Dhidhdhoo is expected to be complete, and the facility made operational in March next year.

Hussain was summoned to the Parliament on Monday morning to answer questions by Dhidhdhoo MP Abdulla Waheed regarding the ice plant project.

Waheed said that the Fisheries Ministry had issued the bid invitation for the ice plant – a project financed by the Saudi Fund for Development - in September last year, but had provided no information regarding the project since.

He asked for an update on the project, including the expected date on which construction work will start, and when the ice plant will be operational.

Hussain responded that the bid invitation back in September last year had attracted only a single bid, which was disqualified as the party had not been registered and therefore did not meet international bidding requirements.

He said that interested parties had expressed concern regarding some of the project requirements.

“We noticed there were some difficulties in submitting bids. Bidders say that due to challenges in shipping in equipment and material via sea, it will be impossible to complete the project within the given six-month period. The second thing is, because of the high financial eligibility criteria, many of the Maldivian companies that wish to bid are getting disqualified,” he said.

Hussain said the Fisheries Ministry needed to make some changes before re-issuing the bid invitation for the project.

He also said that the process also required approval from Saudi Arabia.

Hussain said that the Fisheries Ministry expected to receive approval from the Saudi’s next week, and would re-issue the bid invitation the same week.

He said that a one-month window will be given to submit bids.

The deadline for submission of bids will most likely be the last week of May, he said.

Hussain said that if a sufficient number of valid bids are submitted, it will take at least 15 days to evaluate the bids.

He said that the Fisheries Ministry expected to sign a contract with the winning bidder in the second week of June.

“The ice plant will be complete and operational eight months after the contract is signed. We expect it to be March 2023,” he said.

Hussain’s comments come after the government imposed a fishing quota due to limited ice storage capacity at Maldives Industrial Fisheries Company (MIFCO), which is unable to accommodate the catch during the current good fishing spell.

An emergency motion was submitted to the Parliament over the issue on Monday. However, it was rejected.