07.05.2013
The Technical Supervision Authority (TJA) signed an agreement on Friday for the preparation and preliminary design of county plans related to the Rail Baltic railway line.
The works will be carried out by Estonian companies OÜ Reaalprojekt, OÜ Hendrikson&Ko, EA Reng AS, together with Lithuanian design company UAB Kelprojektas, who won the open public procurement. The contract period is just over two and a half years and the contract value is approximately 7,5 million euros excluding VAT.
“The start of the preparation of county plans and preliminary design marks a significant moment in the development of the Rail Baltic project,” said Raigo Uukkivi, Director General of the Estonian Railways Agency. “We have now moved from the level of discussions to very specific activities, the successful completion of which will make the construction of the new railway line tangible.”
The Rail Baltic project is co-financed to the tune of 50 percent by the European Union's TEN-T program.
European Commission Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas told ERR radio news yesterday that although Rail Baltic is not the only project that relies on support from the European Union for the development of transport connections, he considers Rail Baltic to be the most serious of them.
Ten billion euros will be allocated to develop transport connections in cohesion countries.
“Dreams are not only widespread in Eastern Europe, but also in Western Europe. Countless good ideas are coming here all the time,” said Kallas. “It seems to me that the cooperation and preparatory work of the Baltic countries has come quite far. I don’t know that the others have come so far, because corridor projects have to be multi-country.”
Source: Pärnu Postimees, 7.05.2013
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