Georgia: EBRD to Sponsor Tbilisi-Bypass Railway Project

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will provide $100 million to underwrite plans to remove an arterial railway line from central Tbilisi and to construct a new line that will skirt the Georgian capital.

The project aims to divert cargo transit, including Caspian Sea petroleum products en route to the Black Sea, from having to travel through the center of Tbilisi, the GHN news agency reported on March 18.

Under the project, the city's central railway station will be relocated to the outskirts of town and a new railway line will go around a large water reservoir that sits northeast of Tbilisi, municipal authorities say. A new highway and rapid tram line will also replace the latticework of railways that cuts through the middle of the city.