Rasmale’ Project: CMCCC ordered to pay MVR 25.9 mil to MTCC

The Maldives Civil Court on Thursday has ordered CMCCC, the developer of the largest-ever housing initiative in the Maldives, the Rasmale’ project, to pay USD 1.68 million (MVR 25.9 million) to the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC) that dredged 10 hectares of land required for the project.

Dredging and land reclamation for the project began on December 18, 2023, with the deadline of eight months.

Although the government had signed an initial agreement with Sri Lanka’s Capital Marine and Civil Construction Company (CMCCC) for the initiative, this was rescinded citing the government did not intend on awarding any lands to the contractor.

The government had intended for a contractor-financing approach to execute the project and later contracted two developers from India and China.

MTCC was seeking to recover the unpaid amount it was owed by CMCCC for the dredging and land reclamation it had carried out in the project. The company filed the lawsuit citing contractual breach and was seeking for the lumpsum payment of the outstanding amount.

According to the lawsuit, CMCCC had requested a quote for the dredging and land reclamation component from MTCC on December 12, 2023, to which the latter complied by sending a quotation on December 17 of the same year.

CMCCC awarded the project component to MTCC on the same day the quotation was mailed.

In the civil lawsuit, CMCCC had argued the payment deadline was not explicitly mentioned in the contract between MTCC and argued it would make the payment once the Housing Development Corporation (HDC) makes its payment to CMCCC. The Sri Lankan contractor had requested a two-year period to pay the outstanding amount.

The court however, held that the contract between the parties clearly indicated that CMCCC owed payment to MTCC upon completion of the contracted task, which was stated in under the payment terms indicating that the defendant had breached the contractual terms.

The court had ordered CMCCC to pay the outstanding USD 1.68 million to MTCC within a 30-day period from the date of the judgment.