President Abdulla Yameen has inaugrated the state's controversial project to have an airport built in Kulhudhuffushi island of Haa Dhaal Atoll. 

President Yameen had not addressed Kulhudhuffushi residents at the event, held on Sunday. 

Instead, the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company's CEO Ibrahim Ziyath spoke at the event. He had lauded over the company's 'Mahaa Jarraafu', a dredger Ziyath said that company had high hopes for. 

On 1st November, the Maldives Transport and Contracting Company brought in the dredger and built a bund wall in Kulhudhuffushi. 

The Environment Ministry approved the project on 26th October, amid protests in front of the ministry’s headquarters in capital city Malé.

Environmentalists protested the potential destruction of Kulhudhuffushi island’s remaining mangroves, after the other was destroyed for an earlier development project.

Ecocare, a local non-profit, went as far as to claim that the project itself is a violation of Article 22 of the constitution.  

The Environmental Impact Assessment for the project also revealed it would have ‘irreversable damage done to reclaimed area’. The mangrove itself is one of the ‘environmentally sensitive’ locations marked to be maintained and protected by the state.