City Hall and C.T. Park to agree on new regulations
By Tatia Megeneishvili
Thursday, August 20
The independent member of Tbilisi city council, Aleko Elisashvili, stated that he intends to hold rallies from September until the Mayor’s Office cancels the agreement with parking regulatory company C.T. Park.
Elisashvili doubts that the parking company has made a secret agreement with City Hall, that is why the Mayor’s Office is not eager to abolish the contract.He also demands the cancellation of car impounding.
"C.T. Park is violating the right of our residents. I have doubts that they have good relationships with high level officials, as I see no reason why government does not react to violation facts," stated Elisashvili.
The members of the Free Georgia party also disapprove impounding of cars by C.T. Park.
They offer the affected people free legal aid.
"City Park fines people correctly, but the problem is that after this they are towing cars illegally," said the Member of the Free Georgia, Shota Makatsaria.
The Head of the City Park's Communication Department, Levan Tabidze rejected all charges.
"Our company is fulfilling all the obligations and our opponents are deliberately misleading the society,” he stated.
The contract between the City Park company and the Mayor’s Office was signed under the previous government in 2007 and the company received exclusive rights to manage the parking services in Tbilisi until 2022. However, the service costs and rules have raised various questions about the company amongst the people, who disapprove of the work of the company.
The government is also unsatisfied with the work of City Park and has stressed many times that the agreement is unprofitable for the city but cannot cancel the contract, because according to the international auditing company Ernst & Young, the cancellation of the agreement will cost the Mayor’s office 25 million GEL in expenses.
Tbilisi Mayor, Davit Narmania has commented on the C.T. Park issue during his stay in Israel.
He said that City Hall began talks about making changes in the agreement with C.T. Park a month ago.
"We gave a one-month period to City Park Co. to analyze the situation and give us a clear answer. Our main objective is to change the agreement so that the damage inflicted to the city is compensated for,”- said Narmania.
In addition, the Mayor said that impounding of cars should be cancelled and drivers should only be fined for parking violations.
According to him, active talks are underway to solve parking problems in the capital and also to weaken C.T. Park’s monopoly in this field.
“If City Park does not agree to reasonable changes, City Hall may resort to stronger measures,” Narmania said.
