New Metro station to be built in Tbilisi

Residents living in Georgia’s capital city will soon become better connected thanks to the announcement of a new Metro station in Saburtalo.

The new station will be located near Tbilisi State University’s Maglivi X building on University street.

The new station will continue from the Vazha-Pshavela station, and is expected to be operating in two years.

It will cost between 35-42 million Euro (about 84-100million GEL) to build the new station. Multilateral finance institution Asian Development Bank will fund 85 percent of the total cost and the rest will be covered by the State budget.

The majority of the work, including construction of tunnels, was completed during the Soviet era.

The Tbilisi Development Fund, the municipal entity designed to finance rehabilitation of old parts of the capital city, will announce a tender for the construction works in the near future.

Discussions surrounding the design of the Metro station have already taken place between Tbilisi Metropolitan, the managing company of the municipal transport and Spanish-based company Eurostudio.

The Tbilisi Metro is made up of two lines measuring 27.1 km in length and serves 22 stations. Of these, 20 stations are below ground while two are at ground level.

There are advanced plans to extend the Metro system with a third line, to encompass the Vake district.

In 2012, the Metro transported 93.9 million passengers - a significant increase on the 85.6 million passengers transported in 2011.

The first Tbilisi Metro station opened in 1966.