Recently, the 2-kilometer-long China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, a symbol of the friendship between China and the Maldives, officially opened to traffic. The Highway Network Monitoring and Emergency Response Center of the Ministry of Transport (referred to as the Ministry's Highway Network Center) undertook the research on the bridge's cost.

The China-Maldives Friendship Bridge is located deep in the Indian Ocean near the equator, where winds are strong and waves are rough, the number of effective working days per year is small, and local materials are scarce. Building a bridge on coral reefs was the first of its kind in the world. The Maldives is a world-renowned tourist destination with extremely strict environmental protection requirements for construction. There is a lack of space for offshore construction, requiring the use of large ship-mounted equipment. All of these factors differ from cross-sea bridges already built in China.

The Party Committee of the Ministry's Highway Network Center attached great importance to the cost research of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge and required the project team to put political awareness first and give full play to its professional expertise in cost engineering. Li Zuomin, Party Secretary and Director of the Ministry's Highway Network Center, inquired about the progress of the work on multiple occasions and coordinated related matters. The leadership team of the Ministry's Highway Network Center held several special meetings to study complex technical problems.

According to reports, by understanding the actual local conditions of bridge construction and breaking down the work processes, the Ministry's Highway Network Center grasped the cost situation of each stage of bridge construction, compiled the "Special Quota for the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge," and passed expert review. The review experts unanimously agreed that the research results of the Ministry's Highway Network Center objectively and truthfully reflect the construction cost of the China-Maldives Friendship Bridge, fill the gap in China's cost pricing basis for foreign aid projects, and provide an important reference for the cost of similar projects in the future.