Tbilisi City Mayoralty refuses to make concessions to taxi drivers on protest

Protests of taxi drivers in the capital of Georgia will not entail a postponement of the introduction of new rules, according to which taxi cars should be painted white, announces Vice-Mayor Irakli Khmaladze.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that on March 20, at a rally in Tbilisi, several hundred taxi drivers demanded to cancel the City Mayoralty's order to repaint cars in white until October 1, 2019, in order to obtain the A category licence, with which taxi drivers may search for passengers on their own or through dispatch services. Otherwise, taxi drivers can only get the B category licence with which they are allowed to work only through dispatch services. The City Mayoralty offers each car owner a voucher for 500 GEL (185 USD dollars) to repaint a car, but taxi drivers are sure that car repainting will cost more. Organizers of the protest announced new actions which would block the traffic in the centre of the Georgian capital.

The authorities of Tbilisi treat the protest against the reform as unacceptable, while issued vouchers will fully cover the cost of car repainting, declares Vice-Mayor Irakli Khmaladze.

He has noted that when making a decision on the taxi reform, the Mayoralty calculated all the consequences and the requirements are not impossible to implement, the "Business Georgia" reports.

According to the official information, over 26,300 work permits have been issued for taxi drivers in the capital of Georgia.