Six private homes to be demolished for construction of Rail Baltica railroad sections at Riga Airport and Central Station

  • 2019-08-23
  • LETA/TBT Staff

RIGA - Six private houses will be demolished for construction of the Rail Baltica railroad sections at the Riga Central Station and Riga International Airport, as Rita Voronkova from Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas, the company implementing the Rail Baltica project in Latvia, told LETA.

As reported, 123 properties will be compulsorily acquired for the Rail Baltica railroad sections at the Riga Airport and Central Station. There are no apartment buildings on any of these land plots, but there are six private homes and several businesses operating there.

The amount of compensation payable to the owners of these properties will be determined by the Cabinet of Ministers. Each case will be considered on an individual basis, said Voronkova.

LETA also reported, 86 of the properties to be compulsorily acquired for the Rail Baltica project are located at the Rail Baltica station and related infrastructure at the Riga International Airport, with a total area of 21.84 hectares, while 37 properties are located at the Riga Central Station, and their total area is 1.3 hectares.

Preparations for compulsory acquisition of land plots necessary for the development of Rail Baltica railroad began in 2017. The purchases are being made at the same time as the Rail Baltica route and stations are designed, which ensures that Eiropas Dzelzcela Linijas have precise information on what properties have to be purchased for the project.

Rail Baltica is a double track, European standard 1,435 mm gauge electrified railway for passenger and freight transport to be built from Tallinn to the Lithuanian-Polish border. The overall length of the railway will be 870 kilometers. The total cost of Rail Baltica in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia is estimated at around EUR 5.8 billion.