Maldives gives Addu airport project to UK firm

Maldives has chosen UK-based Lagan Construction to develop the Addu International Airport.
Managing Director of Maldives'State Trading Organisation (STO) Shahid Ali said that along with Lagan Construction, Danish company MT Hojgaard had also submitted a bid for the project.
"The tender for the development of Gan Airport was opened in December. It took us one month to evaluate the bids. Two parties had submitted proposals.
"They were Lagan Construction and Hjgaard. Out of them, Lagan had submitted the most responsive bid in the bid evaluation process. So Lagan has been shortlisted," Shahid was quoted as saying in local media.
Shahid stated that discussions were underway with Lagan to implement the project.

He said the project has been tendered as a design build contractor finance project.

That means all the detailed designs will be made by the contractor.
"We provide the scopes, or our demands. We give our requirements, which include making detailed designs. Another requirement is contractor finance. So the contractor has to bring in the funds. That's how it's been done. Their proposal includes a contractor finance package," Shahid said.
He said that discussions are ongoing regarding the insurances required by Lagan for contractor finance and other detailed documents, and that the contract will be signed once the documents are sorted.

Maldives had last year terminated a USD 511 million project awarded to Indian infrastructure major GMR last year for the upgradation and development of the Male International Airport.
The termination had led to a row with GMR dragging the matter to an arbitration Court in Singapore. At present, both Maldives and GMR are in the process of working out a compensation package as part of the arbitration process.