Kobakhidze: New USD 200 million rail link to Anaklia planned with WB support, tender due by month’s end

“We are working actively on the project for a railway connection to Anaklia. With the support of the World Bank, we plan to build a new 18-kilometre section of track, at an estimated cost of USD 200 million,” Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze announced in a speech at an event marking Railway Workers’ Day.

According to the head of government, the construction tender will be announced before the end of this month.

“When we introduced Mariam Kvrivishvili as Vice Prime Minister, I devoted a detailed presentation to the changes made in the economic sphere, essentially those carried out over the past year and a half. One of the most important parts of that presentation was the Georgian Railway. This is hardly surprising, given that an exceptional number of significant changes have been made at the railway during this period. Lasha Abashidze was appointed head of the railway in May last year, and since then a great deal has changed fundamentally at Georgian Railway. A comprehensive overhaul of our commercial and operational processes has slashed wasteful spending and dramatically improved resource management, yielding 190 million lari in savings. This optimisation is ongoing, with more pivotal updates slated before year-end. But we can already say that, according to figures for the first nine months of this year, Georgian Railway’s net profit has doubled compared with the same period last year, which speaks for itself. Naturally, every penny of these savings will go back into developing Georgian Railway,” Irakli Kobakhidze said.