“Immediately upon taking office”
Therefore, the request of a number of parliamentary deputies to the “head of the transport department” Kaspars Briskens (Progressives) was very understandable.
To be fair, we note that the head of the Ministry of Transport, who has enough energy, for example, to participate in rallies in support of Ukraine that are still initiated by caring Latvians, did not ignore the interest of the Seimas.
Here is what Briskens responded: “Immediately following taking office on September 15, 2023, the Minister of Transport raised questions and problems related to the implementation of the project in various formats, including the significant amount of capital investment required for the project and long-term problems in the institutional sphere of project management .
According to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Transport has prepared for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers a substantive report on the scope and plans for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project, ensuring the functionality of the project, connecting interstate railway lines and integrating Riga already at the first stage of the project, as well as the necessary changes in the project management system.”
Now, not only the RB Rail enterprise operates in the country, with the address no longer on Gogol Street, but on Emilias Benyaminas Street (now things will work out!) – but also a special “thematic committee” from various interested departments.
Its goal is “to agree on the location and coverage of the main Rail Baltica line, which can objectively be implemented by 2030 within the time and financial resources required for construction work, while fulfilling Latvia’s international obligations and achieving the main goals of the project…”
Let’s take the date mentioned by K. Brishkens as the starting point of our high-speed train – it means in 6 years? But it’s not that simple… “A number of challenges will need to be resolved to implement this plan.”
This is how high-speed trains should rush along the rails.
Source: Press photo
“It is impossible to implement the project in accordance with…”
In the following lines of the letter to the deputies, Mr. Brishkens nods to the Ministry of Finance in the person of Arvils Asheradens, representing another coalition party, New Unity.
“It should be emphasized that the existing model of financing the Rail Baltica project is considered a serious limiting factor … according to the logic of design and construction work, as a result of which the project implementation time is extended, it becomes more expensive and, as a result, it is impossible to implement the Rail Baltica project in accordance with the best principles of design management.”
Among other things, the minister mentions “pre-financing” of construction. Anyone who has even dealt with apartment renovations knows that craftsmen are usually very sensitive to spending money, as they call it, “for overclocking.” And if, having received it, they do not immediately go on a binge, then at best they continue to work with coolness and an increase in requests. But now we scale the volume of labor costs performed… for example, a million times. And we get what is currently happening around the construction of Rail Baltica.
It is not surprising that the minister acknowledges “the information that has been circulating in the public space for a long time regarding the existing risks to the implementation of the project.” By the way, this is precisely why Prime Minister Evika Silina (New Unity) instructed the Ministry of Transport to look into the situation.
It’s a national matter
Next, K. Brishkens makes an elegant move – they say, why is everyone picking on him? “Responsibility for the implementation of the Rail Baltica project cannot be limited to the competence of the Ministry of Transport, since the successful implementation of a project of this scale requires inter-institutional synergy, ensuring constant cooperation not only with the parties involved in the implementation of the project, but also with potentially interested interest groups – representatives of the public, investors and etc.”
Excuse me, but he made a polemical point regarding the public. When regarding thirty years ago, at the foggy dawn of our non-Atkarib, it was discussed how to better connect us with Europe, no one guessed, for example, what kind of monster the construction business would be in its Latvian incarnation. For example, the mossy basements of the Stradins Hospital, which was built and built with EU money, and now they seem to be planning to mothball it, cry out regarding whose habits.
In the same way, the picture of tourists traveling cloudlessly past the Baltic landscapes today does not in any way match the alarmist rhetoric – they say, the enemy is on the doorstep. Before traveling here? And the military significance of Rail Baltica, of course, is implied – but more in ordinary conversations, they say, a rolling road for transporting troops. But not in the practical implementation of the construction project, because NATO did not show the slightest interest in it. Although the name of the international consulting group sounds downright militaristic: Task Force!
But since Mr. Brishkens has already indicated that the public must be involved in the implementation of the construction of the century, then it is time for the “Progressives,” relying on ideological young people, to revive the movement of construction brigades. Only the energy of youth can overcome the greedy construction magnates. Your author, for example, 35 years ago in Riga met two charming Muscovites, students of the Transport Institute. What did they do in the summer in our republic? They were preparing an embankment for the port road to Kundzinsale. I recently visited there and it still works great. These are imperial practices.
If everything comes together happily and Latvia is not shocked by new unforeseen priorities by 2030, then another question will arise – who will work on the new route? Railway technologies have been mastered for at least several years, and programs at technical universities and colleges need to be laid out now. Unless, of course, we, as in the food delivery industry, are ready to rely on Indian specialists…
STANDARDS
Since practically no railway lines have been built in Latvia over the 34 years of independence, there are no corresponding by-laws regulating their construction. They have to be created from scratch, which once more lengthens the implementation of the project.
#minister #explain #happen #Rail #Baltica
2024-03-30 20:00:34
