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New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI): The Maldives on Thursday sealed a contract for the implementation of an India-funded connectivity project, billed as the largest infrastructure initiative being rolled out in the island nation.
\nUnder the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) project, a 6.74-km-long bridge and causeway link will be built to connect capital city Male with adjoining islands of Villingli, Gulhifalhu and Thilafushi.<\/p>\n
Funded under a grant of USD 100 million and a Line of Credit of USD 400 million from India, this will be the largest infrastructure project in the Maldives, officials said.<\/p>\n
The contract for the implementation of the project was signed between the Ministry of National Planning, Housing and Infrastructure of the Maldives and Afcons Infrastructure Ltd.<\/p>\n
“This is a defining moment in the development journey of the Maldives,” Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid said on Twitter.<\/p>\n
The signing ceremony was attended by Minister of National Planning & Infrastructure Mohamed Aslam, Minister of Economic Development Fayyaz Ismail, Minister of Finance Ibrahim Ameer, Minister of Transport Aishath Nahula and Indian High Commissioner Sunjay Sudhir.<\/p>\n
The largest connectivity project so far in the Maldives is the Sinamale bridge (1.4 km) built under Chinese assistance connecting Male with Hulhule and Hulhumale.<\/p>\n
In a series of tweets, the Maldivian foreign minister thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for supporting the development journey of the Maldives.<\/p>\n
“India is proud to be a key development partner of Maldives. Deeply committed to its national progress,” Jaishankar tweeted in his response.<\/p>\n
Enhancing regional connectivity has been a key priority for India and the Maldives.<\/p>\n
A direct cargo ferry service connecting Tuticorin in Kochi with Male and Kulhuffushi was started in September 2020.<\/p>\n
Development cooperation has been a key emerging pillar of the India-Maldives relationship with New Delhi providing Lines of Credit of over USD 1.2 billion for infrastructure and grants for community development projects to the island nation.<\/p>\n
India extended assistance to the Maldives during the coronavirus pandemic that included the early supply of vaccines.<\/p>\n
The Maldives was the first beneficiary of India’s Vaccine Maitri initiative. So, far India has provided 300,000 doses of Covishield, of which 200,000 were gifted.<\/p>\n
The Maldives is the first country in South Asia with which India started an ‘Air Travel Bubble’.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
New Delhi, Aug 26 (PTI): The Maldives on Thursday sealed a contract for the implementation of an India-funded connectivity project, billed as the largest infrastructure initiative being rolled out in the island nation. Under the Greater Male Connectivity Project (GMCP) project, a 6.74-km-long bridge and causeway link will be built to connect capital city Male […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-170227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}