Andres Ruubas, the head of the public transport department at the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, told ERR that the bid for the Virtsu-Kuivastu and Rohuküla-Heltermaa ferry lines was submitted only by TS Laevad OÜ.

"The formalization of the public procurement decisions will not take very long, as only one bid was submitted," Ruubas stated.

He added that the qualification of the bidder and compliance evaluation is expected to be completed by next week.

Previously, Ruubas has confirmed that the service will largely remain the same in the future: the crossing time will not change, and the schedule will remain at least as frequent. Warm food will also continue to be offered on the ferries.

The tender to find an operator for the Virtsu-Kuivastu and Rohuküla-Heltermaa ferry lines from the fall of 2026 until the fall of 2033 was announced last November, but its deadline was postponed several times due to disputes over the tender.

Among other conditions, the tender required that the profit margin for the entire contract period could be up to 8 percent, with competitive bids expected. At the end of the contract period, in 2033, the state plans to introduce new environmentally friendly ships to the lines.

According to data from the Ministry of Regional Affairs and Agriculture, statistics from recent years show that there are over 17,000 trips to Saaremaa and nearly 6,000 trips to Hiiumaa annually.

On the Virtsu-Kuivastu line, the number of passengers grew by 5 percent last year, and by 3 percent on the Rohuküla-Heltermaa line.

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