Minister slams lack of planning in rollout of power upgrade projects in major islands

The incumbent environment minister, Thoriq Ibrahim slammed the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) administration on Tuesday, accusing the former government of launching power system upgrade projects in populous islands “without any plan whatsoever.”

Thoriq made the remarks in response to questions by lawmakers at a parliamentary sitting on Tuesday morning.

Thoriq said that many of the projects assigned to Fenaka Corporation by the former administration were hindered. He said that the former administration ran projects without any proper plan or prioritization.

He said that works on electricity projects in the most populous islands of Maldives, such as Addu City, Fuvahmulah City, Thinadhoo City and Kulhudhuffushi City, had stalled halfway through.

“The projects in all these cities stalled around midway through. Therefore, Fenaka, the former administration, ran power system upgrade projects without any plan whatsoever,” he said.

Thoriq said the disruption of power services in islands was stemming from lack of proper establishment of services, and that Fenaka was working on resolving such issues.

He added that Fenaka was also working on expediting stalled projects, either by hiring new contractors or by negotiating with existing ones.