Prime Minister announces IDP housing project for Imereti region

Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili is visiting the Imereti region in Western Georgia to meet with locals and discuss problems in the region. 

One of the first stops on his visit was the small town of Zestaponi, where he met with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) living it the town.

The Prime Minister spoke about the acute housing shortage for people in Georgia with a refugee status and said this would be solved by 2016.

The Minister of Refugees Davit Darakhvelidze told Garibashvili that up to 3,000 refugees will be provided with suitable housing in the Imereti region by the end of 2014.

"Our primary responsibility is to care for the refugees. Unfortunately even two decades after, the issue related to the provision of essential household commodities and lodgings for refugees is still on the agenda. 

"Our Government is actively working in this direction. This problem should be eventually resolved by 2016. We are trying to create decent living conditions for the IDPs,” Garibashvili said while meeting the IDPs.

Construction of 25 sixteen-storey buildings for long-term housing for IDPs is planned for Kutaisi, main city of the Imereti region.

Under the project the rehabilitation of 134 residential apartments will be carried out - six of which will be fully adapted for people with disabilities.

Currently nine reconstructed houses were granted to 1,672 IDPs in the Imereti region.

After visiting Zestaponi, Garibashvili continued his journey to the Sviri village.

The PM met with the local community and observed the construction of a school of modern standards intended for 120 pupils.

The head of the government spoke to teachers and pupils and said education was a priority of the Government.

At the meeting the local community asked the PM to resolve the traffic problems in their area. He told them the road rehabilitation project had already been approved and would be implemented in the near future.

According to the PM, nine new schools will be built across the country and 340 other schools are expected to undergo major rehabilitation works during 2014.

After this village, the PM went on to visit the Terjola village where he met local residents who had gathered at the Gogni Karugdebeli Church yard.

The locals were mostly concerned about how the ways the internal precinct had been damaged by gasification, malfunctioning transmission poles and problems related to limited access to health care.

Garibashvili declared work had already begun to resolve this issue and said the roads that had been damaged by gasification would be restored as soon as possible, while Georgian electric company "Energo-Pro-Georgia" will rehabilitate the electric system.

The PM's visit to the Imereti region will end later today.