Salome Achba
Transportation has been problematical since the morning of February 25th. Most of the mini buses do not work. The buses and metro stations have been overloaded. The transportation collapsed as a result of a strike of approximately 500 drivers.
The drivers are naming the tender conducted by the City Hall to be the motive of the strike. The protest rally will take place at a “Rose Square” at noon. Then the drivers will move to the Freedom Square in front of the City Council at about 17:00.
The tender the results of which are protested by the drivers was conducted several weeks ago by Tbilisi City Hall. Following transportation companies registered a day before the tender were selected: Tbilcar, Tbilline, Public Car and Capital Group.
As the drivers stated at the protest rally, they found out from the owners of the mini bus lines that the transportation companies selected by the tender are not going to bring the modern mini buses from abroad as stated earlier. They are trying to sign an agreement with the drivers of the existent mini buses and raise the tariffs. Particularly, they are going to raise the tax up to 20-40 GEL a day since March 1st. This will automatically raise the transportation price. Before the tender, the tax used to be 7-10 GEL a day. The drivers are asking for the abolishment of the tender results and conducting a new tender.
The member of the City Council, a leader of the political party Free Georgia Kakha Kukava states that the results of the tender are corrupt and should be abolished and the case transferred to the Office of Prosecutor. He will raise this issue at today’s session of the City Council, he adds.
“The relevant commission of the City Council should start hearing the tender conditions anew in the presence of those drivers and the representatives of the line owners who are working in Tbilisi. The existent tariffs should not be changed. If there are some pretensions regarding the technical state of the mini buses it does not concern everyone. We are ready to conduct a technical surveillance of each mini bus abolished by Saakashvili earlier,”- stated Kukava.
According to the member of Christian-Democrats and a City Council Jaba Samushia, mini bus business was the only free business but now it is taken over by four monopolist companies: “It was the only free business in Tbilisi. 10 000 families were taken care. Now 4 monopolist companies took over it. I would like to emphasize that it says 4 just on the paper. It is just one company in reality. These four have already been unified. As for the drivers, the representatives of the City Hall might see them today and present different promises, but in reality they have lost their jobs since October.”
Tbilisi City Service of Transportation soon reacted upon the strike of drivers and denied the fact of increase of daily taxes for mini bus drivers.
According to the head of the City Service of Transportation Akaki Jokhadze, the drivers do not have right information. “Certain individuals tell the drivers that they have to pay the increased daily taxes. Jokhadze states that the interests of drivers will be protected and they will not have to pay any additional money. The drivers will not be imposed any fixed or overtimes taxes,” – states Akaki Jokhadze.
Despite this statement, the drivers of mini buses are not going to stop the protest rally. Tbilisi City Hall found the solution by providing additional buses. According to the City Hall, before the strike of mini bus drivers, the additional buses will work in the capital so the citizen will not have the problems of transportation.
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