The Estonian Technical Surveillance Authority signed an agreement on Friday under which the Estonian companies OU Reaalprojekt, OU Hendrikson&Ko and EA Reng AS together with the Lithuanian company UAB Kelprojektas will draw up the county plans and preliminary designs of the Rail Baltic railway and related structures.
The period of contract is a little more than two and a half years and the cost 7.5 million euros exclusive of VAT.
The party to perform the work was picked by the Technical Surveillance Authority in a public procurement tender.
"From the discussions phase we've now moved on to very specific actions, upon the successful completion of which coming to the point where the new rail route will start to be built becomes a tangible opportunity," Raigo Uukkivi, director general of the Technical Surveillance Authority, said.
The Rail Baltic project is co-funded to the extent of 50 percent by the European Union's TEN-T program.