Rail Baltica: procurement of services for the development of land acquisition projects is launched
LTG Infra, the company responsible for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project in Lithuania, launches three calls for tenders to procure services for the development and implementation of projects aimed at land acquisition for public use (LAPU). Procurement contracts are scheduled to be signed at the start of the coming year. However, the development of projects will only start once special plans for the railway sections currently involved in the spatial planning process are approved.
“In implementation of this strategic project we have been using the practice of parallel activities. Thus, in line with the development of special plans, we launch calls for tender for the next project implementation stage – land acquisition. Next year, once the special plans are approved, we will be able to commence land acquisition procedures without delay”, says Dovydas Palaima, the manager at LTG Infra Rail Baltica.
The special plans are being drawn up for future infrastructure maintenance facilities near Kaunas and Panevėžys as well as for three sections of the future railway line: Kaunas–Vilnius, Jiesia (Kaunas)–Lithuanian/Polish border and Kaunas urban node.
The successful tenderers having won the tenders announced this week will have to develop the LAPU projects for infrastructure maintenance facilities and two sections – Kaunas railway node and the section between Jiesia (Kaunas) and the Lithuanian/Polish border. A call for tenders to develop and implement the LAPU project for the railway line from Kaunas to Vilnius is planned in October.
The manager at LTG Infra Rail Baltica points out that owners and users on whose plots of land the European gauge railway or other infrastructure items are to be built are kept informed directly of any major step in the project implementation.
“Only after the completion of the spatial planning process and approval of the special plans the development of projects for land acquisition for public use will commence, cadastral measurements of land plots will be made, and real estate valuation will be conducted. Land and real estate owners will be informed of all such actions,” D. Palaima points out.
Rail Baltica is the largest railway infrastructure project in the history of the Baltic States, which will provide an electrified double-track European gauge railway line along the entire Rail Baltica route, connecting Warsaw, Kaunas, Riga and Tallinn. The total length of the Rail Baltica railway line in the Baltic States is 870 km, with 392 km in Lithuania, 265 km in Latvia and 213 km in Estonia.