Maldives Ports Limited (MPL) has announced revisions to the procedures for allocating docking slots at the Malé North Harbor. According to an announcement made today, the new regulations will be enforced starting at 08:00 AM on the 14th of this month.

The revised rules for vessel slot allocation are as follows:

  1. Cargo and passenger vessels are eligible to join any queue from the time of their departure, provided that all applicable quay wall fees for Malé North Harbor have been fully settled.
  2. If a vessel is contacted by the North Harbor Office based on its queue priority but fails to dock at the quay wall within two hours—or if the operator is unreachable—the vessel will be placed on a temporary 'hold' status in the Zone A and Zone C queues. The office will then proceed to allocate the space to the next vessel in line.
  3. Reinstatement of a 'held' vessel into the active queue can only occur once the vessel enters the Malé area and the operator formally requests the office to 'unhold' its status. It is the sole responsibility of the vessel's management to initiate this request.
  4. For vessels reinstated in Zone A or Zone C, the office will provide notification of a vacant slot no sooner than two hours after the 'unhold' request is processed. If the vessel fails to dock or the operator does not answer the call at that time, the slot may be deferred. A maximum of three such deferments are permitted; upon the fourth instance, the vessel will be automatically removed from the queue.
  5. No 'hold' or deferment options are available for the Express queue. Once notified of a vacancy, a vessel must dock within a four-hour window. Quay wall charges will commence from the time of notification. Failure to dock within this four-hour period will result in immediate cancellation from the queue.
  6. The maximum duration for a vessel to remain on 'hold' without being 'unheld' is five days (120 hours). Beyond this timeframe, the vessel will be removed from the queue.
  7. Registering in the queue after departing the harbor, as well as re-registering following any cancellation, remains the responsibility of the vessel operator.

Additionally, MPL is currently working on providing water and electricity services to vessels docking in front of the Malé Local Market, a utility service that was not previously available in that area.