Slight majority support 'Castle' deadline

RIGA - Fifty-three percent of Latvian citizens who have an opinion on the construction of the new ‘Castle of Light’ building for the new National Library in Riga support its opening to the public and full functioning by 2014, according to a survey by the market, social and media research agency TNS Latvia, reports news agency LETA. This means that the construction work would have to be finished by the end of 2012, says National Library spokeswoman Sanita Kitajeva.
Support for the opening of the building by 2014 was especially high among ethnic Latvians, at 65 percent. Meanwhile, 47 percent of those surveyed indicated that they fully or partly did not support the completion of construction by the defined date.

The survey included 900 employed citizens between the ages of 18 and 55, who were surveyed between March 23 and March 25.
On January 27, the Supervisory Council for the National Library project provided the Culture Ministry with two detailed scenarios for development and submission to the government. The first scenario would make it possible for the new National Library building to begin its activity in the fourth quarter of 2013, which would be appropriate for Riga’s role as 2014 European Capital of Culture, and Latvia’s 2015 presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The second scenario foresees extending the construction work into the first quarter of 2014. Extending this work would increase the expense of the project by at least 18 million lats (25.7 million euros). In this case, the earliest possible date for the full operation of the library would be the fourth quarter of 2014.