Economics, Estonia, Financial Services

"The Ministry of Finance will propose at the deliberation of the state budget the ways in which we can finance the construction of four-lane highways. If the finance minister has a new solution he would like to suggest in relation to his visit to Germany and Austria, it merits discussing and consideration," Aas told. 

Aas said that the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications is presently preparing a road maintenance plan for the coming ten years, which also includes the development and financing of the reconstruction of the state's three main roads into four-lane highways and also sets a goal to rebuild more popular gravel roads into roads with a dustless surface by 2030.

"If we find other means to finance the construction of 2+2 highways, we can also proceed much more rapidly with making gravel roads dustless," Aas said.

Minister of Finance Martin Helme said in a press release earlier on Thursday that with cooperation between the public sector and the private sector, the Tallinn-Parnu, Tallinn-Tartu and Tallinn-Narva roads could be reconstructed into four-lane roads within the coming years.

Helme also mentioned a possible bridge to the island of Muhu, the completion of which would mean Saaremaa, the country's biggest island, getting a road link to the mainland; the minister noted that this project, too, could be completed with PPP.

The minister added that he has tasked the Finance Ministry with preparing the corresponding legal framework and that he intends to propose for the government to admit the projects into handling in the near future.