September 6, 2010 - 12:23 AMT
Israel to go to law with Georgia over road repair issue

Israeli construction company Ashtrom International Ltd will go to law with Millennium Challenge Georgia over a road repair issue.

The company requested Tel-Aviv district court to suspend confiscation of guarantees at the amount of 8 million shekels it provided in 2008 when sealing a contract with MCG, IzRus reported.

Ashtrom International was debarred from participation in Samtskhe-Javakheti Road Rehabilitation Project in August 2010, as ‘it didn’t meet its obligations’. The project managers said the company fails to accomplish works due to the schedule, so they will be trusted to a company working faster. The $203-million project envisages repair of 223 km of road in Samtskhe-Javakheti and Kvemo Kartli regions, with Ashtrom International [no more], Papenburg Black Sea Group [German-Georgian] and two Azerbaijani companies as tender winners. The project was launched in spring 2008 and must be finished by the end of 2010.

Meanwhile, Ashtrom International stated that Shortly after the start of works, the company’s specialists revealed numerous defects in the engineering drawings and calculations made by the Georgian side.

The problem basically referred to as segment which had to be laid through a densely populated mountainous area. However, despite the project miscalculations, the MCG refused to revise the terms, the company said.