From 2012 to 2022, almost 30 000 displaced families were given apartments. This is about 100 000 people, which, you may agree, is a very large-scale endeavor. It was stated by the Prime Minister of Georgia when speaking with reporters after the ceremony of capsule dropping at the site of the construction of apartment blocks for families displaced from the occupied territories of Georgia.
“I want to thank you for coming here. We have started a very large-scale project of building apartments for internally displaced persons (IDPs). You can now see the works being in progress already. Seven hectares are allocated for the site. The state allocated this land and up to 245 million GEL is spent. Overall, 11 buildings will be built and 2400 apartments will be made readily available for this project. In total, 2400 families will be given flats here and the work will be completed in about two years, by the end of 2025 at the latest, maybe even earlier. In addition to this large-scale project, which is underway in Tbilisi, we will also start a large-scale project in Zugdidi.
There is a project designed for 1700 apartments, large-scale works are also conducted there. The tender has been held and the works will start very soon. We launched the same initiative n Kutaisi – the project is designed for 700 families. similar initiative will be designed for 800 families in Rustavi and work will be started for 150 families in Borjomi. In total, almost 7000 families will receive fully completed apartments in these newly built buildings. This is a very important project and, in total, almost 700 million GEL will be spent on it in these two-three years. You know that we implemented many similar projects for IDPs since we came to power. From 2012 to 2022, almost 30 000 displaced families were given apartments. This is about 100 000 people, which, I agree, is a very large and unprecedented endeavor. Before that, there was probably a very small number of apartments that would be given to our IDPs. Of course, it is our responsible attitude to take care of our IDPs as much as possible, to create decent conditions of living here.
I will also tell you that this year 1000 families have already legalized their title ownership on their dwelling spaces. So, I think that we are moving in this direction at a very good pace, but, of course, our main goal should be a return to Abkhazia and Tskhinvali. All this will remain the property of our IDPs, but our main task and goal should be our return to Abkhazia and the unification of our country. Therefore, everything that will bring us closer to this great common national goal is our main mission and the main task to do. I want to thank Zurab Azarashvili [Minister of IDPs from Occupied Territories, Health, Labor and Social Security of Georgia] and his team. They have started to implement these works very actively, tenders anx auctions have been held, winners have been announced and very sound companies hsve been identified to deliver; our IDPs will soon be given very comfortable living spaces”, - said Irakli Garibashvili.