President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu launched a mega project to develop the Velana International Airport (VIA) on Thursday, in order to boost the Maldives national airport’s capacity to 25 million passengers per annum.
The multimillion-dollar project – the biggest such project at the VIA – will be carried out over the course of 20 years.
The project involves the expansion of VIA’s services, the expansion of seaplane services, and the development of the international and domestic passenger terminals.
Under the project:
Speaking at the launch, President Muizzu said he hopes to see a lot of the work on the project completed in the next five years, and the bulk of the entire project done in 10 years.
Maldives Airports Company Limited (MACL)’s managing director Ibrahim Shareef Mohamed said the company has already created a taskforce and is working on expediting the project.
He said that ones the ongoing projects in the airport is complete, it will create 1,000 new jobs.
“I believe it crucial to develop Maldives’ aviation industry in order to boost this country’s economy. And this can only be done by people with the capability to make long-term plans,” he said.
Shareef said the project will revolutionize the country’s economy.