Georgia’s East–West and North–South road projects: The billion-dollar infrastructure gambles that should make the ADB think twice

Issue paper    |    29 April 2026

The East–West Highway and the North–South Corridor – two of Georgia’s most ambitious road projects supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) – have had devastating social, environmental and cultural impacts. 

The state body responsible – the Ministry of Infrastructure and its Roads Department – has a well-documented record of bullying and harassment, yet it has faced no meaningful accountability from its international funders.  

Now, despite a catalogue of unresolved failures, the ADB is considering pouring yet more money into Georgian road infrastructure.  

Without serious, enforceable preconditions established prior to approval, these new road projects risk replicating the same institutional failures, corruption vulnerabilities, and safeguard violations that have systematically undermined the impact of existing ADB investments.