Tbilisi Metro's Varketili station will be closed for 45 days beginning July 12, Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced at the City Hall meeting. The closure is necessary to carry out complex rehabilitation works that are technologically impossible during passenger traffic.
According to Kaladze, the project—developed by Probuild Expert LLC in cooperation with foreign specialists—includes extensive repairs to the station’s reinforced concrete ceiling and escalator tunnel. The works follow recommendations by the Levan Samkharauli Expertise Bureau after additional structural issues were discovered during asbestos tile removal.
Key rehabilitation tasks include:
- Cleaning and treating damaged ceiling surfaces
- Filling voids behind the concrete arch
- Sealing temperature seams to prevent groundwater leaks
- Repairing cast iron fastenings in the escalator tunnel
The full rehabilitation of Varketili station is expected to be completed by November–December 2025.
The station has had a troubled history. Initial rehabilitation completed in 2017 cost 350,000 GEL, but the ceiling collapsed in early 2018. A 2022 contract was later terminated due to non-performance. In February 2023, a new 13.4 million GEL contract was signed with Bada Constructions LLC, which is currently executing the works.
Kaladze emphasized that safety concerns require a temporary full closure:
“This is the only way to conduct such extensive works in the shortest time possible.”
The current contract stipulates that all on-site works must be finished by September 22, 2024.
