Maldives Sets November 2027 Target for Thilafushi Commercial Port

The Maldives government is targeting November 2027 for commercial port operations at the new Thilafushi site, where the planned initial capacity is 390,000 twenty-foot equivalent units of cargo a year.

President Mohamed Muizzu reaffirmed the timetable during a visit on 1 October to review the relocation of Malé’s commercial harbour. Maldives Ports Limited officials briefed him on construction, equipment procurement and the facilities planned for the new port.

The President’s Office account of the visit sets out a 60-hectare development with separate facilities for international container vessels and domestic shipping. The full project is expected eventually to handle 1.8 million TEUs annually.

Those figures describe the planned capacity at different stages of development. TEU is a standard measure of container capacity based on a twenty-foot container; it is not a count of individual containers regardless of their size.

First Quay Section Completed

Construction of the first 100 metres of the inner harbour quay wall has been completed. Land levelling and road construction are continuing, while approximately 40 per cent of the inner harbour backfilling has been finished.

The production of precast concrete blocks for the quay wall is also progressing. Officials reported that procurement of essential machinery and equipment was underway, alongside the process of selecting a contractor for the terminal buildings.

Muizzu was received at the site by MPL chief executive Captain Hussain Shafeeq. The President described the relocation as a government priority and said ministries, companies and external partners were coordinating work on the project.

He said the new port would expand trade capacity, support business development and improve productivity. Those are the government’s stated objectives for the relocation.

International and Domestic Facilities

The initial international container quay will extend for 375 metres, with a depth of 14.6 metres. Its design allows the quay wall to be extended to 1.4 kilometres as the wider project develops.

A separate domestic quay is planned to run for approximately two kilometres. The opening equipment list includes two ship-to-shore quay cranes and one mobile harbour crane.

The government projects that the international quay will bring vessel turnaround times down to about two days. The President’s Office compared that with seven to 14 days for loading and unloading at the existing Malé Commercial Harbour.

That two-day figure is a forecast for the new facility, rather than a measured operating result. Construction, equipment delivery and terminal development remain part of the work described in the October update.

The 1 October announcement links the November 2027 target to commercial port operations at the new site. It gives separate initial and full-project capacity figures, but does not specify a completion date for the eventual 1.8-million-TEU expansion.