Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze celebrated the opening of another remarkable section of the Rikoti Highway at a special ceremony on Tuesday.
“I want to congratulate you on the opening of this 12-kilometer section. With this addition, we now have a total of 48 kilometres of four-lane highway completed, with only 4 kilometres remaining in this historic Rikoti project,” Kobakhidze announced.
The Prime Minister highlighted that the road construction pace has increased several times over the past 12 years.
“Traffic will now use both the historically rehabilitated Rikoti tunnel and a newly constructed parallel tunnel, each nearly 2 kilometres long – the longest tunnel on the Rikoti section. “Currently, we’re utilizing a total of 49 tunnels and 88 bridges on the Rikoti section. These numbers demonstrate the scale of work completed in such a short period,” Kobakhidze stated.
The Prime Minister noted that road construction has increased several-fold over the past 12 years. While previously there were only 68 kilometres of highway in the entire country, approximately 300 kilometres have been added since then.
“Rikoti is part of the European strategic road route – the East-West Highway Corridor. Each newly opened section significantly improves mobility and reduces travel time and distance. This qualitatively new road through Rikoti’s challenging terrain, built to modern standards, already reduces travel distance by 8 kilometres and halves travel time, increasing capacity and transit cargo turnover. Building a four-lane highway on the challenging mountainous terrain of Likhi Ridge, which involved massive engineering challenges, has always been recognized as a critical and complex project. Therefore, we rightfully refer to it as the project of the century, unparalleled in Georgia,” Kobakhidze declared.
The Prime Minister announced that along with Rikoti, all ongoing highway sections will be completed in phases, making it possible to travel from Tbilisi to Batumi in just three hours by next year.
“Georgia’s international road corridors continue to develop actively, with 367 kilometres of highway now operational across the country. In just the last seven months, we opened 86 kilometres of highway – equivalent to the total length of roads built before 2012,” he noted.
Kobakhidze outlined future plans, including the construction of Batumi-Sarpi, Red Bridge, and Sadakhlo sections, which will connect Georgia with neighbouring countries via highway. He thanked the Ministry of Regional Development and Infrastructure, partners, construction and supervision companies, and all project participants.
The project has significant international backing, with the European Investment Bank, Asian Development Bank, and World Bank participating in the planning stage. The Prime Minister specifically thanked Infrastructure Minister Irakli Karseladze for his tireless work.
The highway is built to international safety standards and includes a modern lighting system. The remaining section’s completion timeline depends on weather conditions, with road surface work scheduled according to technical parameters and requirements.
