Georgia Starts Building Power Line to Turkey
Georgia started construction of a high-voltage power line on September 15 to increase its export capabilities, the Georgian Energy Ministry said.
EUR 260 million project, co-financed by EBRD; the European Investment Bank and Germany state-owned bank KfW, is expected to be completed in 2012.
President Saakashvili said at the groundbreaking ceremony in Gardabani, south of Tbilisi, that Georgia already was “the most independent and diversified” country in terms of energy supplies.
“With the help of this line, we will rule our a situation, wherein someone could blackout Georgia with cutting of one power line,” he said referring to the January 2006 energy crisis, when power lines and a gas pipeline in North Caucasus were blown up.
“At that time [2006 energy crisis] I promised myself and our people that we will never allow freezing of our children as a result of cutting power and gas supplies. We will never allow a player on the energy market [reference to Russia] to dictate the economic and political rules of its game; we will never allow the situation, wherein Georgia can be so dependent on one supplier, that its independence might be seriously endangered,” he said.
“This new power line means that our promise given to the people has been kept,” Saakashvili added.
As he was speaking workers in his background were installing a power line’s tower.
“Deeds in parallel to words,” he said. “This is a new form of the [ruling National Movement’s] pre-election slogan [‘deeds instead of words’, which the ruling party used during May, 2008 elections]… The work has been done as I was speaking.”
The construction of the power line will be carried out on three sections, involving completion of a 500-kilovolt line between Gardabani and Akhaltsikhe; 500-kilovolt line from Zestaponi to Akhaltsikhe and building of 400-kilovolt line from Akhaltsikhe to a sub-station at the Turkish border with total length of up to 300 kilometers.
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