Gov’t says technical inspection of vehicles to be obligatory from 2018
By Tea Mariamidze
Wednesday, November 9
Georgia’s Vice Premier and Economy Minister, Dimitri Kumsishvili, announced on Tuesday that periodic technical inspections of vehicles would become obligatory from December 1 2018.
Kumsishvili said that the government intends to involve international companies in the process, in order to implement new standards in the country.
The Minister said that the government announced a tender to purchase the services of a qualified consulting company. Any interested companies can take part in the process. The price of testing will be determined after negotiations with a tender winner consulting company.
The application deadline is December 8 2016. The evaluation process will be conducted by a relevant governmental commission, which will discuss the presented proposals and reveal the winner. The Government will then make the final decision.
“Our goal is to have a transparent and quality-oriented free market in Georgia. Therefore, we welcome all investors who meet the relevant standards. The goal is to promote a healthy and safe environment for the citizens of Georgia,” Kumsishvili stated, and added that the recent increase in the number of road accidents partly occur due to faulty vehicles.
Moreover, the Minister noted that international studies revealed the extremely grave situation in Georgia in terms of the environment and air pollution, which is mostly caused by the absence of proper vehicle standards.
Kumsishvili said that within the periodic technical inspection program, initially all regions of Georgia will be studied, in order to determine how many inspection centers are necessary in each region.
“Central automated management system will be set up, that will completely eliminate the possibility of corrupt practice in the inspection process,” added the Minister.
He also added that by the end of 2017, the infrastructure necessary for periodic technical inspection of the vehicles would be arranged in every region, and mandatory inspections would go into force from December 1 2018.
“30 million USD Dollars will be invested in this project, which will also create new jobs. Around 1000 specialists will be trained and employed in the venture,” Kumsishvili claimed.
