Coconut palms grace newly redeveloped section of Male’ ring road

Workers have begun planting coconut palms – a tree deeply rooted in Maldivian identity – along the newly redeveloped section of Boduthakurufaanu Magu, the ring road that wraps around the Male’ City.

According to the government, the coconut palms, along with other shade trees, are being planted to convert the area into a greener space.

The decision to plant coconut trees follows backlash the city council faced back during President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s tenure as the capital city’s mayor, when it chose to plant date palms around Male’.

The 100,000-tree program launched in 2022 saw a large number of date palms planted along the city’s southern coastline.

However, many of these date palms, a tree that is not native to the Maldives, soon began to wither and die.

Many environmentalists pointed out that date palms were hard and costly to cultivate in the Maldives, whereas coconut palms grow well in the country and require minimal maintenance.

Maldives Transport and Contracting Company (MTCC), the company tasked with the Boduthakurufaanu Magu road redevelopment project, reported on Wednesday that the project was making significant progress, with road marking works now 100 percent completed.

MTCC said that they had also completed construction of the parking zone and sidewalks on Segments 2 and 3, while the remaining finishing works were expected to be completed Wednesday.

The company is currently working on parking zone marking and light installation works, which are scheduled for full completion within the week, bringing the project ever closer to its final completion.

The MVR 144.5 million Boduthakurufaanu Magu project, which will see the redevelopment of 830 meters of road with an asphalt base and 737 meters of sheet piling and a storm water drain system, was awarded to MTCC in April 2025.

The work on the northern side is expected to wrap up by the end of July.