"On July 13, 2018, the Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), joint venture of three Baltic states RB RAIL AS, the Ministry of Economics and Communication of Estonia, the Ministry of Transport of Latvia and the Ministry of Transport and Communication of Lithuania signed the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Grant Agreement for the construction of the Rail Baltica conventional railway infrastructure," said RB Rail, the consortium overseeing the project.
The total value of the agreement is nearly 130 million euros while the CEF contribution will be of a maximum amount of 110 million euros which is 85% of total eligible costs, RB Rail said.
Lithuania will be the major beneficiary of this tranche, with the money divided as follows: Estonia receiving nearly 6 million euros (CEF contribution almost 5,1 million euros), Latvia – about 8 million euros (CEF contribution almost 6,9 million euros), and Lithuania – approximately 115.6 million euros (CEF contribution nearly 98,4 million euros) ti include building a bridge over the River Neris.
The funding is intended to be used for actions such as assessments and studies, technical design, preliminary design, spatial planning, construction work, owner's supervision, project implementation support measures and publicity.
Rail Baltica is a 6 billion euro railway transport project, which aims to integrate the Baltic States within the European railway network. It is envisaged to build a new 870 km long European gauge (1435 mm) railway line with a maximum speed of 240 km/h.
RB Rail is a joint venture established by Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to oversee the implementation of the Rail Baltica project. The shareholders of RB Rail are Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai, Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas and Rail Baltic Estonia.
The video below contains some basic information about the Rail Baltica project.
