Tbilisi City Hall to Regulate Chaotic Taxi System

The lack of information about the number of taxis, driver qualifications and state of health creates a number of problems not only on the roads, but can also lead to serious safety issues. This is why Tbilisi City Hall took the bull by the horns recently and met with companies offering public taxi services.

“The current situation on the roads is quite complicated; we take that into account and know that this field requires serious regulation,” said Vice Mayor of Tbilisi, Lasha Abashidze, making a special emphasis on the safety aspect. “We want to create a scheme that, with the least intervention, will gradually allow us to solve this problem.”

After the meeting, representatives of the Tbilisi City Hall drew attention to several important issues in this area. In particular, they mentioned that approximately 40,000 taxis operate in Tbilisi today, although there is no precise information about the number. There is also no common data base of taxi drivers, or details about their health status or the condition of the cars they are using for the purpose of taxiing, all of which should be considered highly important in their profession.

Although Tbilisi City Hall does not yet have concrete proposals regarding the issue, they plan to create a Working Group and prepare a special document to go towards regulating problems in this field. The representatives of the City Hall made it clear they are also aware that for the majority of taxi drivers, their professional activity is their main source of income. “Therefore, the interests of taxi drivers will be taken into account as much as possible during the creation of the document,” they said.

“We will consider different mechanisms to conduct their registration without serious expenses and without harm to involved parties,” said Deputy Mayor of Tbilisi, Irakli Lekvinadze. “We want to put an end to the chaos on the roads and focus on security and safety.”

Eka Karsaulidze