Four Georgian border villages connected with gas

Four Georgian villages located near the so-called occupation line with Georgia’s breakaway Tskhinvali (South Ossetia) region are now supplied with gas.

Slightly more than 1,000 households in Gori municipality who live near the administrative border, which has been contested since the Russia-Georgia war in August 2008, are now connected with a reliable gas supply.

Georgia’s Vice Prime Minister and Energy Minister Kakha Kaladze, with the local authorities and representatives of Azerbaijani gas distribution company SOCAR Georgia Gas, lit a symbolic torch today at a number of villages to symbolize the new gas connection. The villages were: Zemo Nikozi, Kvemo Nikozi, Ergneti and Zemo Khviti.

Meanwhile, more than 33 villages in Georgia’s eastern Shida Kartli region will be connected with gas for free after the central government allocated 19 million GEL to this project.

Authorities believed it was "urgent” to connect those living near the occupation line with gas, as locals had been quickly detained by Russian border guards when they entered a nearby forest to gather capers or firewood.

Last year SOCAR Georgia Gas signed an agreement to connect 100,000 rural Georgian families with natural gas until 2017.

The agreement was signed on December 24 by Energy Minister Kaladze, Minister of Economy Giorgi Kvirikashvili and SOCAR President Rovnag Abdullayev.