TBILISI, DFWatch – The former Soviet republic of Georgia is going to construct a new coal power station in the near future.

This was announced Thursday by the director of Georgian Industrial Group, Nana Turnava. She said the group has signed a contract with the Turkish company Mimsam to construct a 160 MW coal power station in Gardabani, near the border to Azerbaijan.

The power station will be fed with domestically produced coal from a mine in Tkibuli in the west of the country.

Annual energy output will be 1 billion kilowatthours of electricity, which will partly be used for domestic consumption, partly for export.

Turnava says this is an important project, because it will be the largest coal power station in Georgian history.

300 people will be employed during the construction phase, which is to last only one year, and the facility will employ 100 people after going into operation.

Turnava said the size of the investments is not yet clear, but she estimates that more than 100 million dollars will be required.