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

"In the case of such megaprojects it is essential to keep track of the prices of different components, such as construction works and materials, bridges and viaducts, ecoducts and environmental alleviation measures, which may change over time," CEO of Rail Baltic Estonia Indrek Orav.

"While the 2011 analysis of AECOM calculated that the railway would cost approximately 3.8 bln euros to build, by now the figures concerning the above-mentioned components as well as the exact route and technical solution of the railway are known, and therefore the cost can be computed considerably more precisely than back in 2011," he explained.

"Compared to 2011, the overall cost of the project has risen and forms approximately five bln euros. Adding the construction of the Kaunas-Vilnius connection, we get a cost of around 5.8 bln euros," Orav said. "The cost of the Estonian section has remained stable in recent years at about 1.3 bln euros of which the Estonian state's co-financing would form 250-300 mln euros."

The total cost of Rail Baltic may amount to five bln euros, CEO of the project coordinator RB Rail Baiba Rubesa said at a press conference in October 2016. As recently as May 2016, the overall cost of the project was estimated to be 3.68 bln euros.

Rail Baltic is the project for the construction of a European-gauge high-speed railroad from Tallinn to Lithuania's border with Poland.