New hospital to open near Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia in 2017

A multi-profile hospital is set to open a stone’s throw away from Georgia’s administrative border with breakaway Abkhazia, offering the highest level of care for locals and those living in the breakaway region.

Construction of a 41.3 million GEL hospital complex is already underway and is due to be completed in 2017.

The total cost of the new university hospital was expected to reach 41,264,000 GEL (about $17,597,308 /€15,900,703*) and boast 220 beds.

State Construction Company Ltd was responsible for building the hospital in Rukhi, a village in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, located about a kilometre from Enguri Bridge along the so-called Administrative Boundary Line (ABL) between occupied Abkhazia and the rest of Georgia.

The Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure of Georgia was the responsible party representing the State Construction Company Ltd, which was founded in 2006 with 100 percent participation of the state.

The hospital will be fully equipped with modern technologies and will include seven facilities.

In addition, an auditorium and library will be built for medical students and residents; sports facilities, parking lots, inner trails, pools and gardens will be constructed in the hospital territory too. A dormitory providing accommodation for residents, patients and their family members was also planned to be built.

State Construction Company Ltd was responsible for building a hospital in Rukhi village. Photo by State Construction Company. 

Once the hospital opens, residents of Rukhi village and other neighbouring villages, as well as residents of Abkhazia, can receive medical treatment and services from the new facility.

Meanwhile, a multi-million GEL trade centre made up of 10 separate buildings and other infrastructural facilities on a five-hectare plot has also opened in Rukhi. About 1,000 people are employed in the trade complex.

Furthermore, Georgia’s Ministry of Justice was about to open its 31st Community Centre, which will offer up to 200 legal services to locals, ranging from providing identification documents to registering properties.

Free internet, Skype, an electronic library, Automatic Teller Machines (ATM), pay boxes and a ballroom will be within the Community Centre space. The project, worth 15 million GEL (about $6.4 million/€5.78 million*), was carried out by the state-owned Partnership Fund. About 300 locals were employed during the construction phase of the Centre.

Rukhi village also enjoyed a new greenhouse, which grows different kinds of vegetables and Kolkhuri box-tree. More than $92,000 was spent on the project. The majority of greenhouse staff were people who had been displaced from Abkhazia.

All these projects and more aimed to stimulate the local economy and support Georgian citizens on both sides of the ABL.

* Currencies are calculated using the latest National Bank of Georgia exchange rate.