Establishment of 30 shorebased VHF listening stations in the Maldives

Maldives is an island nation that relies heavily on marine transport. At any given time, majority of the 15,000 marine vessels registered in the Maldives are at sea.

With adverse weather developments on the rise owing to climate change, number of accidents with casualties have been increasing, owing to ineffective communication between vessels and shore. Currently, only vessel-to-vessel communication is available in times of distress, with just one shore- based facility.

The proposal seeks to establish 30 shore-based VHF listening stations to communicate effectively with vessels operating in the territorial waters of Maldives, thereby improving the response time to vessels during times of distress, and contributing to overall safety of marine transportation.

Technical Support for a National Air Transport Plan

Given the dispersed nature of the country, the need for efficient connectivity across all modes of transport is important.

On the air transportation front, numerous requests are being received to the Government from both tourism stakeholders and local communities for development of regional airports. Given the capital intensive nature of airports as well as its impact to the environment, Government recognizes that aviation planning needs to be strategic and done with due consideration to its business sustainability as well as environmental impacts. The proposal seeks support in the following areas:

• Review the air transportation infrastructure and forecast air traffic activity for the international and domestic market based on current development plans
• Propose a developmental masterplan for air transportation
• Propose business models for successful management and operation of regional airports