Page 55 - GEORptOct19

schedule.
“These four new routes[...] will further promote Georgian tourism and will deliver over 170,000 customers annually to/from two European countries to one of Europe’s fastest-growing tourism destinations,” Ryanair chief commercial officer David O’Brien said. “We look forward to developing new Georgian traffic growth, new routes and jobs in the coming years.
On June 25 the Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air also announced 12 new routes from its Georgian hub, Kutaisi.
The new flights will serve Turku (Finland), Nice (France), Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Nuremberg (Germany), Heraklion (Greece), Naples, Pisa and Venice (Italy), Poznan (Poland) and Stockholm (Sweden).
Seven out of the twelve new routes (Baden-Baden, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Naples, Pisa, Poznan and Venice) will be launched by the end of 2019. The others will be operational from the summer of 2020.
9.2.2 ​Infrastructure and construction corporate news
An agreement to build a 9-km tunnel on the Kvesheti-Kobi highway section was on September 5 signed by the Georgian Ministry of Infrastructure and Chinese company China Railway Tunnel Group (CRTG).​ The tunnel will cost $306mn (€278mn), accounting for more than half of the $559mn cost of the road section.
Construction is to be financed by the Asian Development Bank ($415mn) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, or EBRD ($60mn). The rest will be financed by the government.
Work is to start at the end of this year, with a completion target in 2023.
The Kvesheti-Kobi highway section is part of the North-South Road Corridor, connecting Georgia with its northern and southern neighbours.
The road passes through difficult terrain and is often closed due to heavy snowfall in the winter.
The project is part of a large-scale plan. Officials aim to use it to help improve the transport network and establish Georgia as the region's trade and tourism hub.
The highway will comprise of a two-lane, 22.7-km long asphalt-concrete road and will include six bridges and five tunnels, the longest being the 9-km tunnel. The width of the Kvesheti-Kobi tunnel will be 15 m, a size that is rather rare not only in Transcaucasia but throughout the world. A 500m arch bridge will also be constructed on the route.
American company​ C​ onti International LLC​ ​has reportedly pulled out of the Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) behind the project to develop a $2.5bn deep water port on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. AccentNews.ge​ ​reported the investment exit,​ ​quoting ADC executive director Levan Akhvlediani. A withdrawal by infrastructure construction services company Conti International would very likely bring about the mothballing of the port project, at least under the arrangement inked by ADC and Georgia’s government in 2016.
New Jersey-headquartered Conti is one of the main partners in the ADC consortium, besides Georgia’s TBC Holding.
Conti made its decision to pull out of the project because of sluggish progress, sources briefed AccentNews. In particular, it was unhappy that no agreement has yet been reached between the government and banks lined up to support the investment, despite what it described as “rhetoric” from officials on how the state backs both the project and the consortium.
55​ GEORGIA Country Report​ October 2019 ​ ​www.intellinews.com