An ecoduct will be developed in the Loone region and two viaducts will be constructed on Künka and Tagadi roads, set to be completed in October next year, ETV's daily affairs show "Aktuaalne kaamera" reported on Wednesday.

The total cost of the two contracts is €7.6 million, making up just a slight part of Rail Baltic's Estonian project budget of €2.7 billion. Most of the railroad developments should be completed by 2026 and construction on the main route is set to begin in 2023. In 2022, developments of the Pärnu and Ülemiste terminals are also set to begin.

"Our first object has actually been completed - it is the Saustinõmme viaduct. But now we are going into a greater wave of construction, which we can announce as open today (Wednesday - ed). We were able to sign two contracts for viaducts and one for an ecoduct with YIT Eesti and the TREV-2 group. This actually knows that we are actually entering the construction phase," said Rail Baltic Estonia board chairman Tõnu Grünberg.

Rail Baltica construction across all three Baltic States has been estimated at around €6 billion, with the EU are ready to put up 85 percent of that. The Estonian component of the line, from the northernmost terminal at Ülemiste, on the southern approaches of Tallinn, to the Latvian border, is projected to cost €1.6 billion, while €318 million is earmarked for Estonia's mandatory funding of the project.

The proposed Rail Baltica link, sometimes known in Estonia as Rail Baltic, will connect the three Baltic capitals (with an extension to Vilnius) to Warsaw, Poland.

The first train ride should take place on the Rail Baltic corridor in five years. It is too soon to say, however, whether or not this will be a domestic route only and which railway companies will operate it. The European Commission expects for the entire project to be completed by 2030.

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