Housing and Planning Minister, Mohamed Aslam, has stated that over 56,000 people have travelled on Raajje Transport Link (RTL) ferry zone 1 so far.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of RTL ferry at HA. Dhiddhoo on Tuesday night, Aslam stated that the Administration is very committed to creating a holistic transport network in the Maldives.

"We built an idea on how the transport network in Maldives should look like. As such, we divided Maldives into three regions, with 2 zones in every region, and islands classified into clusters of 20 islands. We have been working to make this a reality," Minister Aslam said.

He noted that there has been a long standing belief that a high speed ferry network in the Maldives would be expensive and near impossible to implement.

"People have always said that this cannot be achieved. That this is expensive and people will not travel like this. But we always believed that people would choose such transportation options," he said.

Minister Aslam stated that the RTL ferry network in zone one with 41 islands has seen 56,238 people travel on RTL ferries so far.

He added that governments across the globe have spent on creating public transport services and it is something the current Administration needs to spend on.

"We cannot calculate the success of the transport network based on the revenue. We have to take into account the changes it brings to the societies. The ease it brings to people and the socio-economic impacts. This is how we must calculate results," Minister Aslam said.

The RTL ferry pilot project was conducted in HDh. Atoll in May. Since then, RTL ferry services have begun in HA and Sh. Atolls as well.

MTCC has been contracted to carry out the RTL ferry project and are currently working on zones 3, 4, 5, and 6 at present.