Vehicle testing in Georgia will become mandatory from January 2018

Georgia is stepping up its efforts to ensure safety on the country's roads and support better environmental practices by testing the road worthiness of vehicles before they are allowed to drive on roads.

Mandatory vehicle inspections will be resumed in Georgia from January 2018, stated Georgia’s Economy Minister Giorgi Gakharia today.

Vehicle testing will be launched in January 2018 and will not be delayed for even a day. One of the best companies SGS has been working on this project. They have already completed two stages of the project and are about to complete the last three stage by the end of this month,” Gakharia said.

In his words the vehicle testing will be launched step by step and the inspection of all vehicles will take about one month.

By resuming mandatory vehicle inspections the Government of Georgia is trying to significantly improve the ecological environment, as the vehicles are considered as one of the major contributors to air pollution in Georgia.

It is also believed that vehicle testing will help reduce car accidents in Georgia.

Today there is no mechanism in Georgia to check all safety parameters of vehicles after mandatory vehicle testing was cancelled in 2004. Since then testing a vehicle’s road-worthiness has been voluntary.

Now Georgian authorities must readdress this issue; within the Georgia-EU Association Agreement signed by both sides in 2014, Georgia is obligated to ensure all vehicles are compliant with EU standards.