The hotel group is already building a 400-bed resort in the northern atoll of Villingili in Maldives.
The Shangri-La would be the first deluxe property in the capital which currently only has over a dozen guest houses and small hotels, Lanka Business Online reported.
Tourism Minister Mahamood Shougee said the new hotel would be a replacement for Male’s Nasandhura Palace Hotel, which is owned by the state and is to be demolished to make way for a city park.
Besides Nasandhura, the Maldivian government owns the Farukolhufushi Island and a substantial stake in the Hulhule Island Hotel.
The proposed development is part of the Maldives’ plan to attract a million tourists by 2010 and increase its hotel bed capacity some 80 percent to 36,700 by 2012.
Since opening its first two resorts with 280 beds in 1972, Maldives now has luxury resorts sitting on 89 coral islands, with occupancy rates averaging 95 percent.
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