For decades, Rustaveli Avenue — Tbilisi’s main thoroughfare, along which stands parliament, the opera house, and one of the city’s biggest malls — has been the site of parades, major protests, and even a revolution.
Yet today, shattered pipes, construction rubble blocking the pavement, and roads covered in mud are some of the daily challenges faced by residents and commuters alike who must navigate a series of renovations on Rustaveli Avenue. At the same time, locals report frequent power and water outages, along with concerns over the lack of safety measurements, while businesses have noted reduced customer traffic.
‘It killed my business’, Sergo Kobakhidze, the owner of Rustaveli Cafe-Bar, tells OC Media.
The renovations, he says, have caused such a loss in traffic that he had to throw out products and even let an employee go, taking over the role himself. He adds that the government has not offered any compensation or other financial assistance, despite his losses stemming from the construction.
‘At this stage, there is no compensation program in place for local businesses affected by the rehabilitation of Rustaveli Avenue’, Tbilisi City Hall told OC Media.
The renovation of Rustaveli Avenue is a large-scale reconstruction of one of Tbilisi’s most significant public spaces. The resulting construction site has intensified traffic jams in the cities, created obstacles for local residents and passersby, and financially damaged local businesses like Kobakhidze’s.
At the same time, the construction company responsible for the renovations, which has been linked to the ruling Georgian Dream party, has already been fined multiple times for failing to work according to their contract, leaving many wondering just how long the renovations will actually last.
Rising concerns
Speaking to OC Media, Zurab Japaridze, the leader of the opposition Girchi party, highlights that the renovations have led the flow of people passing through Rustaveli to significantly decrease.
‘It is impossible for this not to affect the revenues of these businesses’, he emphasises.
Mariam, a street vendor who often sells newspapers and churchkhela on Rustaveli, tells OC Media that beyond the renovations themselves, it has become impossible to move around whenever it rains due to the amount of mud.
‘If a person is old or ill there is no place to sit and rest until they reach the metro’, she says, adding that construction rubble often blocks the road. She believes the authorities should clear this rubble and put up fencing, allowing pedestrians to still use the pavement.
She also believes the renovations should not have begun at such a large scale; instead, she says, the avenue should have been divided into several parts with renovations being completed one after another, thereby lessening the impact on both cars and pedestrians.
When asked about any potential financial compensation from the government, she responded: ‘What government? The government is not doing anything about it. They are just increasing the pension by ₾20 ($8)’.
One local resident living on Rustaveli Avenue told OC Media that the construction work had caused chaos, and that some buildings along the street were being renovated — or in some cases entirely demolished — without any safety precautions.
Another elderly resident, who refused to give her name, says she has to go in circles in order to get anywhere near Rustaveli Avenue. Even so, she is sure that once the renovations are completed, the avenue will be very pleasant.
‘Let’s be patient’, she concluded.
In a statement to OC Media, Tbilisi City Hall wrote that one of their main priorities was ‘to ensure that citizens can move around safely and without interruption as much as possible while the works are underway’.
The statement noted that temporary crossings for pedestrians had been arranged in various areas, but that they understood the restrictions could ‘create particular difficulties for people who need additional support when moving around’.
‘Our approach is to plan and carry out the works in a way that minimises their impact on local residents, employees, and businesses. Given the scale of the project, it is difficult to completely avoid temporary inconvenience. However, this does not mean that citizens’ needs should be overlooked’, the statement read.
Tbilisi City Hall also noted that currently there was no compensation programme in place for local businesses affected by the renovations.
‘The aim of the rehabilitation is to improve public spaces and urban infrastructure, which should help increase the avenue’s attractiveness and functionality in the long term’, they concluded.
Shifted timelines and failed tenders
Talk of the renovations first emerged in 2023, when Tbilisi Mayor Kakha Kaladze announced that construction would begin the following year. Due to the absence of bidders, however, the tenders announced by Tbilisi City Hall failed, and the project was delayed.
In 2025, Kaladze said that work on the thoroughfare again had to be postponed because studies showed that large-scale works could cause long-term problems for Tbilisi.
‘Rustaveli Avenue is a vital arterial road, and its prolonged closure would create significant challenges and discomfort for residents. Therefore, we will delay the construction until next year’, he concluded at the time.
This time, however, construction finally moved forward, with Tbilisi City Hall signing three contracts with the construction company Smart Solutions worth ₾20 million ($8 million). This tender raised its own concerns, with critics pointing to the fact the owner of Smart Solutions, Levan Gogsadze, is a relative of Georgian Dream MP Beka Odisharia.
According to Tbilisi City Hall, the total project budget of Rustaveli Avenue rehabilitation is ₾50 million ($19 million).
Construction began in late July, with the renovations intended to be completed by the end of November.
‘Rustaveli Avenue is the calling card of our capital, both visually and historically, which has seen many joys, victories, pains, and sorrows, and must be well-organised and modern so that guests and local residents who come to our country have a sense of pride’, Kaladze said.
He said above-ground pedestrian crossings would be built, road signs installed, and the avenue’s infrastructure fully adapted for people with disabilities.
Yet, soon after the renovation project started, Smart Solutions violated the agreement that required them to continue work on the project 24/7. This led to the company being fined 11 times — reaching a total of ₾15,500 ($6,000). The company says it was experiencing unforeseen delays and has disputed the justification for the fine.
‘Kakha Kaladze has not completed a single project within its deadline’, Beso Donadze, a member of the opposition Ahali party, tells OC Media.
Each section of the renovation work, from road infrastructure to landscaping, has a different deadline, he says, and therefore it must be clarified what exactly Kaladze meant when he said renovation would be completed by the end of November.
‘The rehabilitation works started on 23 July, the works should be completed within 100 days, and that is 31 October. In this case, Kaladze is stealing one month through manipulation’, Donadze adds.
In turn, Ana Dadiani, a member of the opposition For Georgia party, tells OC Media that while no one is denying the need for renovations, ‘any large or small project implemented by the “Georgian Dream” government inevitably raises many questions regarding competence and corruption’.
She argues that many settlements and neighbourhoods in the capital are in much worse conditions and require timely assistance, yet remain neglected.
‘As for this project, the tender failed several times, and ultimately the cost of the project increased. In the tender announced in June, only one company participated in all three lots, which increases suspicions related to corruption and business interests’, Dadiani says.
Asked about how Smart Solutions came to win the tender and claims that it was owned by a relative of a Georgian Dream MP, Tbilisi City Hall told OC Media that the company was selected through a public tender ‘based on legally defined requirements and criteria, and the winning company is selected by following the relevant procedures’.
Dadiani argues that an impact assessment should have been conducted to determine how many businesses would be affected by the renovations, including potential decreases in their revenues and plans to implement support programmes.
Some opposition figures also greeted the renovations with a sense of suspicion, recalling when, in 2020, the area around parliament was closed for renovations from late January to mid-August and protesters — including Malkhaz Machalikashvili, the father of a teenager shot dead in his bed by the security services in 2017 — were evicted from the site. At the time, some activists raised concerns that the goal of the renovations was to disrupt the demonstrations, which had been ongoing in front of parliament since 2018.
Speaking to OC Media, Zurab Japaridze, the leader of the opposition Girchi party, raised similar concerns about the latest works.
‘What I can say is that, at first glance, Rustaveli Avenue did not seem to need any renovations, let alone urgent renovations’, he says. ‘Therefore, the suspicion that this renovation process was initiated in order to obstruct the ongoing protest there is entirely natural.’
Responding to OC Media, Tbilisi City Hall wrote in a statement that protests continue to take place on Rustaveli Avenue despite the ongoing renovations, adding that ‘This in itself shows that the ongoing works do not mean a complete end to protest activity’.
Beyond the timing concerns, in late August, pictures of shattered water pipes made out of asbestos were shared on social media. Georgia’s Public Defender’s Office issued a warning, calling on Tbilisi City Hall to investigate the presence of asbestos, noting that it was a high health risk substance and mechanical exposure, cutting, crushing, drilling and removal from the ground is extremely dangerous.
When asked about the safety of workers and locals, Tbilisi City Hall explained that ‘the relevant companies carried out the rehabilitation of underground utility networks and took safety measures within their areas of responsibility.’
In late September, Kaladze again addressed the renovations, reiterating that all construction work would be completed by the end of November.
Smart Solutions declined to comment on the renovation, its timeline, or how it has affected businesses and residents.