Employees Involved in Varketili Metro Station Tender to be Fired

Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced at the city government meeting yesterday, that employees involved in the Varketili Metro station tender procedures will be fired, following the incident on January 30, when a part of the ceiling collapsed at Varketili Metro station, in Tbilisi, injuring 14 people. 

“Our citizens were injured during the unfortunate incident at Varketili metro station. We have examined the situation and it is clear there were flaws in the process of the works,” Kaladze stated. It appears there were violations at several stages of the project, specifically, despite the needed and requested technical expertise for the acceptance process of the construction works, no technical expertise was given. 

While the investigation regarding the Varketili metro station is ongoing, the Tbilisi Mayor asked Mamuka Kobakhidze, Head of the Transport Company to immediately fire those employees involved in the tender procedures of the Varketili metro station. 

As Mayor  Kaladze stated, the evaluation of several infrastructure projects revealed that the existing system and mechanisms do not ensure the high quality of construction works and a concept is being worked on, in order to get better quality and better monitoring of construction works.

The Tbilisi Mayor stated that the tender documentations for municipal infrastructural projects will necessarily include quality control and monitoring at the stages of construction planning and actual construction works. “No construction project documentation will be accepted without prior quality and technical expertise, and construction works will be supervised and monitored at all stages,” the Mayor said. 

“Our citizens are using these infrastructural projects, and we have to maximally ensure the quality of each of these projects and the safety of each person using them,” Kaladze added.

By Nino Gugunishvili