More than 4,500 plots of land, in addition to 6,000 flats, will be allocated in the second phase of the government’s housing project, State Minister at the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure Akram Kamaluddin said on Saturday. The 6,000 flats would be allocated in Hulhumalé, he said.
“The area where the land will be allocated will be announced today or tomorrow, very soon. As per the President’s promise, the housing scheme will provide housing opportunities to many people,” Kamaluddin said.
President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih announced last week that he would soon announce a housing scheme to provide land and flats to all those who have lived in Malé for more than 20 years. The biggest problem facing the people of the city is the lack of housing and as such over 19,000 people will be given land and 16,000 people will be given flats, he said.
For the second round of the housing scheme, land will be allocated from an area connected to Malé by a bridge, Kamaluddin said. He said that many are concerned that those who have applied for the flats will not be able to apply for the land and that the complaint has now been resolved with the details to follow.
“When the new scheme is announced tomorrow or today, those who have received flats will be able to apply for land,” Kamaluddin said.
The government had initially announced 4,000 flats under the housing scheme and yet when the applications status was finalised 18,955 had met the qualifying criteria, which translates to 9,300 housing units.
Under the scheme, 8,000 flats will be made available in Hulhumalé, out of which 4,000 flats have been contracted to India’s Kalpataru Projects International Limited for MVR 2.5 billion.
According to Fahi Dhiriulhun Corporation Limited (FDC), many of the 32 18-storey towers to be built in Hulhumalé, with 1,200 two-bedroom apartments and 2,800 three-bedroom apartments, are near completion. The Solih administration guarantees that residents will begin living in the flats before the end of the current presidential term.