CEO: MPL in bad shape, will receive new equipment within a week

CEO of Maldives Ports Limited (MPL), Mohamed Junaid has said that the company was in bad shape, and that it would receive the new equipment and machinery it needs for an upgrade within this week.

Junaid made the comments to reporters after inaugurating the park for its laborers at the MPL port area this Monday morning.

He said that the delay in equipment and machinery the company needed was due to a lengthy financial process and lengthy process involved in documents needed for the arrangement.

He said that the financial arrangements had now been made, and that the equipment would start getting shipped in within this week.

Junaid said that many of the equipment and machinery used by MPL – such as cranes and forklifts - were damaged, affecting the speed of its work.

“Many of MPL’s equipment are currently damaged. We cannot carry out work in a port such as this in due speed. We need to transport more than 250 containers for clearance each day.

Ships that only need to wait three or four days are waiting 14, 15 days. We can only solve this when we receive the resources we need,” said Junaid.

“We want to guarantee businessmen that, based on the update we received this morning, resources needed for MPL will start coming in within a week’s time,” he said.

Junaid noted that the official port of the country was connected with the economy. And expressed the need for upgrades to be completed as soon as possible.

The park MPL opened for its laborers include carom boards, chessboards and dartboards.