Guideline on lease for floating islands publicized

The guidelines on lease for floating islands developed at lagoons leased for tourism purposes have been publicized.

As per the regulation on lease for islands, lagoons and land for tourism purposes publicized on February 27, such islands will be considered as part of the land area of lagoons.

The regulation detailed that the land area of floating islands will be counted based on the point where the lagoon meets the sea.

This regulation has been publicized at a time Dutch Docklands has been contracted for the development of a floating city at a lagoon located a five-minute speedboat ride away from the Maldivian capital, Male’ City. Under the project, Dutch Docklands Maldives signed with Bison Maldives last month, for the development of the first 5,000 floating homes in the city.

This is the second time Dutch Docklands has been contracted for the project. The first time was in 2010, during former President Mohamed Nasheed’s administration.

No updates regarding the project had been disclosed following agreement signing until 2015, when foreign news outlets made several reports. Therefore, it still is unclear what went wrong the first time.