Former vice president Ahmed Adel has said that former president Yameen Abdul Gayoom did not believe the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge could be built.

He added that some of the ministers in Yameen's administration did not believe in the possibility of building the bridge either, but that then Housing Minister Dr. Mohamed Muizzu believed the bridge project can be completed.

Social media has been buzzing with criticism towards President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu that the bridge is missing lanes from the initial plan. However, the President and Construction and Infrastructure Minister Dr. Abdulla Muththalib have denied the rumours.

In a video posted on Facebook last night, Adeeb said while he was involved in the bridge project discussions, Yameen's cooperation in the planning stage was minimal. He said that Yameen had to be requested multiple times to attend the project meetings.

"Yameen and some of his ministers did not believe the bridge project could be made a reality. His go-to response to queries would be to tell me to go ahead as I see fit. Even when it came to communicating with the Chinese president, his response was to ask me to do it," Adeeb said.

He added that he signed the agreement on behalf of the government because Yameen was too busy focusing on businesses in Singapore at the time.

Adeeb further said that among the few ministers who believed the bridge project could be a reality was the then Housing Minister, current President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu. He added that he had asked for Dr. Muizzu to be made part of the project.

The bridge was constructed as was finalised by the Economic Council at the time, Adeeb said. As such, the bridge feasibility and borehole study are not replaceable, he added.