More than two years ago, the Jēkabpils Regional Council decided to support the construction of a railway line from the Krustpils railway station to the industrial zone in the territory of the former Jēkabpils airfield. This was one of the requirements of the Lithuanian company VMG, which at the time was planning to build a €190 million particle board factory in Jēkabpils.
The design of the railway connection was started, but then the Lithuanian company announced that it was canceling the project.
The next company the local authority tried to attract was an Estonian investor, Fibenol.
Raivis Ragainis (Latvian Green Party), chairman of the Jēkabpils municipal council, said that representatives of the Estonian company "came here, various studies had already been ordered because they need quite a serious amount of water".
"The problem is that the large water basin that supplies the city with water is located right here, so connecting to this basin was not permissible. This meant that other options had to be found. Perhaps in some way this was what tipped them in favor of Valmiera," Ragainis said.
The Estonian company chose Valmiera Industrial Park, where it plans to build one of Europe's most modern biorefineries.
The opposition member of the Jēkabpils Regional Council, Leonīds Salcevičs of the Jēkabpils Regional Party, blames the failure on the council's leadership.
"The reservations are that we have no water resources. I don't believe it. Maybe the discussion was not as needed. We developed the railway project. What will be the result of all this? Where will the railway go?" Salcevičs asked.
The local authority explains that the search for an investor is still ongoing and that the railway could also be useful for other businesses, such as the wood processing company AmberBirch, which is developing its operations nearby. Also, an idea of setting up an egg production facility on the airfield site is still up.
Therefore, the development of the construction project for the rail link is continuing. The municipal budget has allocated EUR 50,000 for this purpose.
The municipality hopes to attract more new companies to the city in the near future.
