Tbilisi Mayor presents a new project

Tbilisi city Mayor Gigi Ugulava has presented a project designed to, as he said, improve the living conditions in Tbilisi’s older districts, stimulate the construction business in Georgia and rehabilitate the historic district of the Georgian capital. Speaking at the presentation outside Metechi Church on Monday, Ugulava said the Mayor’s Office will act as a guarantor for the construction companies to help them get bank loans to complete the constructions that were suspended due to the “events that have been taking place recently” in Georgia.

Under the proposed project, the construction companies will be able to offer the residents of old and damaged houses new living space in the blocks the companies are currently building. They will stay in their homes until their new flats are complete. As soon as they are finished however the residents will move to their new homes and their old ones will become the property of the state.

The Mayor said that in several districts of Tbilisi there is an acute problem with damaged houses, most of which are useless and dangerous to live in. “Those companies who satisfy these residents’ housing needs will be given preferential opportunities to carry out construction projects in these districts. If they are not interested in doing so, the old houses will be auctioned. Some profits from this auction will go to the development company, as a Tbilisi Municipality payment of the purchase price of the new flats on behalf of the residents, and the rest will go to the city budget,” Ugulava said at the presentation, which was attended by representatives of the Government, construction companies and banks. The Mayor noted that if agreement is reached between the construction companies and the residents, a project will be worked out, whose funding will be determined by a special commission. Ugulava said the Tbilisi Mayor’s office will mediate between the construction companies and the banks to acquire the funds to finish all the suspended building projects.

Some have assessed Ugulava’s initiative as part of his preparation for the next local elections. Parliamentary opposition representative from the Christian Democratic Party Levan Vephkhvadze has said that the presentation was actually the opening of Ugulava’s election campaign. However Giorgi Kapanadze from the Axis construction company said that if the banks, the construction companies and the Government get involved in this project together this might bring very positive results. “This project also enables us to solve the problem of damaged houses in Tbilisi, which is a very problematic issue,” Kapanadze noted.