Georgian government plans to provide 13,000 internally displaced families with new homes across the country within the next four years, Director of the IDP Agency Besarion Simonishvili announced earlier today at the health ministry’s presentation of the 4-year strategic plan for the resettlement of IDPs.
A total of 8,000 apartments will be built in various Georgian cities such as Tbilisi, Zugdidi, Kutaisi and Rustavi and 709,800,000 GEL (about $229,508,196/€193,807,339) will be allocated from the state budget for the IDP settlement project in 2021-2024.
The internal armed conflicts in Georgia of the 1990’s caused the forced relocation of the Georgian population from Russian-occupied Abkhazia and South Ossetia (Tskhinvali region) after which about 251,000 people became internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the country. The number of IDPs increased by about 26,000 people following the Russian-Georgia war in 2008.
In addition to 8,000 apartments, the ministry plans to purchase 5,000 houses in various villages of Georgia.
Simonishvili noted that the Georgian government will buy the ‘newly built buildings from construction companies through a tender.’ Photo: The Health Ministry of Georgia/Facebook.
More than 709 million GEL will be allocated [for the project] which shows that caring for IDPs is a priority for our government,” Simonishvili stated.
As part of the four-year plan, up to 80 dilapidated buildings will also be closed.
The ministry plans to build 3,300 flats in Tbilisi by the end of 2024, 1,700 in Kutaisi and Zugdidi and 833 in Rustavi.
From 2013 until today 23,000 IDP families have been provided with new housing, the ministry said.