Trees chopped down for new project in Tbilisi
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Wednesday, November 25
Partisan Gardeners released a statement regarding the felling of trees in the Krtsanisi region. According to them, 600 trees are being cut down in Tbilisi. Partisan Gardeners stated that the trees are being cut to build a road for the Panorama Tbilisi project and the process started on November 20th based on a special permit.
Tbilisi Panorama is a $500 million project initiated and funded by the Co-Investment Fund, created through the assistance of the former Prime Minister of Georgia, billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili.
“All those trees were healthy, but they were still cut down,” reads the statement.
The Mayor of Tbilisi, Davit Narmania, has responded to the statement. According to him, the chopping process in not linked to the Panorama Project.
“Tree chopping is in progress, however the reason for this is to build a new road from Krtsanisi to Shindisi,” stated Narmania.
According to the Mayor, a new road is needed for unloading the traffic from nearby streets and preventing a collapse of the road.
“The population of our capital city is increasing rapidly. Hence, new roads are needed to be built. The street between Krtsanisi and Shindisi will be 5 kilometers in length. As soon as the road will be ready, the heavy situation on the streets such are Leonidze, Machabeli, Asatiani, Iashvili and so on, will be improved,” stressed Narmania.
According to him, only 400 trees will be chopped down or transplanted.
“Some of the existing trees we will save. However, the ones which have to be chopped will be compensated during the autumn of next year. The Mayor’s Office will plant about 15, 000 trees, starting from spring 2016,” stated Narmania.
He added that along with the removal of the trees, some gas pipelines also need to be moved from their current location.
The street building process will be launched in early 2016.
