On air on Ajara TV, the Deputy Minister of Education, Culture and Sport of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara, Lado Mgaloblishvili, stated: "A total of 224 km of roads were paved in Ajara from 2005 to 2012. About 231 km of roads were paved from 2013 to 2016. We have managed to pave the same length of roads in just four years which the United National Movement paved during the eight years of its office."
FactCheckverified the accuracy of this statement.
The local roads situated on the territory of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara (with an overall length of 3,432 km) are subject to the Department of Roads and Amelioration Systems of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara. As for the international and intra-state roads situated on the territory of Ajara, they are run by the Roads Department of Georgia.
According to the official information, a total of 450.206 km of roads were paved in the Autonomous Republic of Ajara from 2005 to 2016. Of this, about 221.9 km were paved from 2005 to 2012 with 78 new bridges being built and 143 old bridges rehabilitated. As for the period from 2013 to 2016, a total of 228.3 km of roads were paved with GEL 53.49 million having being spent on the construction work. About 42 new bridges were built and 40 bridges rehabilitated.
Chart 1:
Length of Roads Paved from 2005 to 2012 (km) and the Number of Built and Rehabilitated Bridges
| Year | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 |
| Roads Paved, Km | 12.4 | 7.0 | 31.0 | 64.0 | 26.0 | 18.7 | 10.6 | 52.2 |
| Money Spent, GEL | 4,288,997 | 3,665,221 | 5,613,455 | 11,049,191 | 3,804,869 | 3,107,725 | 4,756,186 | 10,754,686 |
| Rehabilitated Bridges | - | 16 | 10 | 42 | 26 | 30 | 5 | 14 |
| New Bridges | - | - | 3 | 28 | 17 | 9 | 7 | 14 |
Chart 2:
Length of Roads Paved from 2013 to 2016 (km) and the Number of Built and Rehabilitated Bridges
| Year | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Roads Paved, Km | 34.77 | 40.3 | 61.48 | 91.76 |
| Money Spent, GEL | 7,220,593 | 9,608,616 | 14,947,547 | 21,713,405 |
| Rehabilitated Bridges | 11 | 7 | 5 | 17 |
| New Bridges | 11 | 9 | 10 | 12 |
As for the length of the roads paved in Batumi, this is reflected in the chart provided to us by Batumi City Hall.
Chart 3:
Length of Asphalt and Concrete Roads Paved in Batumi from 2005 to 2016
| Year | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 |
| Asphalt, Km | 3.74 | 1.36 | 2.75 | 4.99 | 1.03 | 4.53 | 15.07 | 13.4 | 14.40 | 6.12 |
| Concrete, Km | - | 0.33 | 0.33 | 1.27 | 0.87 | 1.45 | - | 12.11 | 12.74 | 4.32 |
As the chart reflects, the length of roads paved in Batumi equalled 22.64 km from 2007 to 2012 whilst this increased to 78.15 km from 2013 to 2016. Based upon the statistics, 55.51 km more roadways were paved from 2013 to 2016 as compared to the previous years.
Conclusion
The length of roads paved during the incumbent government in Ajara from 2013 to 2016 has exceeded the length of the roads paved by the previous government from 2005 to 2012 by 6.45 km. In addition, GEL 6.44 million more has been spent on the construction work during the office of the incumbent government as compared to the period of the previous government. As for the length of roads paved in Batumi, 55.51 km more roadways have been paved from 2013 to 2016 as compared to the previous years. On the other hand, 36 more new bridges were built and 93 more bridges were rehabilitated from 2005 to 2012 as compared to the period from 2013 to 2016.
Hence, Lado Mgaloblishvili’s statement is TRUE.
