Construction, EU – Baltic States, Funds, Railways, Transport

The amount being sought in the third financing round was disclosed by Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LG), developer of Rail Baltic in Lithuania, last week. The Lithuanian state-run railway company said that the sum total requested was 313.3 mln euros, including 140.3 mln euros expected by the company for the construction of a 46.7-kilometer roadbed between Kaunas and Panevezys, as well as for engineering networks.

"The financing will go towards, for instance, assessment and tests, the technical design, construction, owner supervision, support of project implementation and publicity measures," RB Rail said in a press release.

The latest funding application is for additional EU money necessary to continue construction works in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, complete the planning stage of all elements of the international project, identify the most cost-effective elements, materials and resources of infrastructure that can be purchased as part of consolidated procurement, carry out a comprehensive analysis of the supplier market to work out the optimal purchase strategy and prepare terms for a resolution on the manager of new infrastructure.

The funding is meant for conducting assessments and studies, developing a technical project, construction works, owner supervision, support and publicity activities.

In the two funding rounds so far, the three Baltic states and their joint venture have received CEF co-funding for the construction of the Rail Baltic railroad worth 765 mln euros in total. CEF funding is expected to cover up to 85 percent of the project's total costs, with the financial support amounting to roughly 633 mln euros.

RB Rail is a joint venture established by the three Baltic countries in October 2014. The Rail Baltic project seeks to establish a direct railway connection between the Baltic states and the European railway network enabling speeds of up to 240 kilometers per hour for passenger trains and 120 kilometers per hour for freight trains.