The feasibility survey for the Addu Bridge to connect Hulhudhoo and Hithadhoo has been completed, and the work of the bridge will start within this year, President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu said last night.
Speaking at the campaign rally of PNC candidate Mohamed Shahid for Addu’s Hulhudhoo constituency, the President said the feasibility work of the bridge had started during his last visit to Hulhudhoo. The feasibility survey has now been completed and technical work is underway to prepare calculations based on the survey.
"After that, we will go to the practical work phase. As I promised, we will start the work of the bridge before the end of 2024," he said.
The President also responded to some of the opposition’s comments about the Addu Bridg. He said the opposition's talk about the bridge is the same as their talk about the Sina-Male Bridge built between the airport and Male City during his tenure as Housing Minister.
He stated that when the opposition spoke of the Sina-Male Bridge, they said that “this is not going to happen, this is useless, where is the engineering of this project, there will be no money for this.”
He further said that the Addu Bridge is not a bridge for thirty people to ride bicycles as the opposition describes it. It will change the development of Addu, and the south as a whole. The government's development projects in Addu are planned in an interconnected manner, he said. All the projects will bring progress to Addu.
"This is a bridge that will take the development of the entire city of Addu to higher levels economically and socially. This bridge will bring great development to Addu and the entire south," he said.
The development of the airport, the sea plane hub, and the 7,000-bed coastal tourism project will all go hand in hand with the bridge project to develop Addu and bring prosperity to the people of the south of Maldives.
The President said that it is important for the government to get a majority in Parliament to implement the works. He said the PNC candidate Shahid is one of the people who will give him the biggest support in making his work for the development of Addu a reality.