A floating city in the Maldives is a reality

New Delhi: Maldives Floating City, the first new floating town comprising 5,000 homes built in a lagoon close to Male City, has its first house as a model completed and towed to the area in the sea where the city is supposed to float.

The project was officially relaunched in March 2021. Bison Maldives contracted to build the project's first homes by Dutch Docklands Maldives, sharing photos of the mock-up unit.

"We have completed and towed the first mock-up unit of Maldives Floating City," announced Bison Maldives in a Facebook post.

Dutch Docklands had contracted Bison Maldives to construct the first homes under the project in February 2022, nearly one year after its award.

According to Dutch Docklands, Maldives Floating City would be developed as a new floating development of 5,000 homes in a lagoon away from Male City—the lagoon located west of Aarah.

This floating city is planned in the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean and is just 10 minutes by boat from Male, the Maldivian capital, a floating town big enough to house 20,000 people once completed.

Reports suggest that it is being designed in a pattern similar to brain coral, and the floating city, along with houses, will have restaurants, shops and schools, with some in between running water canals.

The first unveiled model floating house is now a tourist attraction for most Maldivians visiting the artificial lagoon.

If the project continues, the locals will start residing in the floating city in 2024, and the whole town will be completed by 2027.

Former President Nasheed planned the project in 2010 to have an alternative to the low-lying Maldives islands if they start sinking with the sea-level rise.

Maldives is one of the world's most vulnerable nations to climate change. The central land area is less than one meter above sea level, and with levels projected to rise by a meter by the end of the century, almost the entire country could submerge.

But if a city floats, it could rise with the sea, and the population can safely live in these floating houses. Many Maldivians are shifting from their island to have their future generation safe and not live as climate refugees.