EBRD will allocate EUR 180 million loan to Georgia for financing two major projects - one to construct a new railway route bypassing center of Tbilisi and another one to build a new high-voltage power transmission line.

EUR 100 million loan will be allocated to finance a new double track railway route 10 km north of Tbilisi, which will divert rail traffic around the center of Tbilisi. This section of railway is part of main route for freight on the east-west transport corridor in Georgia.

EUR 80 million loan to the Georgian State Elektrosystem (GSE), the state-owned electricity transmission company, will finance the construction of a 315 km high voltage electricity line between Zestaponi in western Georgia and Gardabani in the eastern part of the country. The project will include the construction of a back-to-back converter station in Akhaltsikhe, close to Turkish border, which will interconnect the Georgian and Turkish power networks.

"This project will open the door to future investments in the electricity generation sector, in particular in renewable energy, for which the Caucasus region has huge potential,” EBRD President Thomas Mirow said at the signing ceremony in Tbilisi on March 17.

President Saakashvili said at a meeting with EBRD President that both of the projects were of "historic" importance.

Transmission line project is co-financed by the European Investment Bank, the European Union Neighbouring Investment Facility and the German Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).

The Tbilisi bypass rail route project is expected to be co-financed by the European Investment Bank and grant financing from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility with additional grant funding provided by the German government.