Ülemiste City joins Rail Baltic business network
Last week, the Ülemiste City business campus in Tallinn joined the Rail Baltic Business Network, an NGO established to provide business-owners a better opportunity to be involved in matters related to the development of the Rail Baltic railway, whose planned terminus will be located in Ülemiste.
"The Tallinn RB joint terminal along with its neighborhood must be a dignified and attractive place befitting a European city on the map of Europe," Ülemiste City board member Andrus Kaldalu said in a press release. "Similarly to Riga planning a train and bus station and surrounding attractive urban space so that it supports arriving passengers' opinion of Riga as a metropolis, we must also turn the Ülemiste area into a gateway to Estonia."
According to Kaldalu, this concept will be supported by the planned European Square, which will connect the joint terminal and airport and tie the currently split area into one attractive whole."
At the NGO's regular november meeting, Rail Baltic coordinator Kristjan Kaunissaare also provided the organization with an overview of the railway project's current situation as well as its future timeline.
Kaunissaare said at the meeting that a cooperation agreement with the Land Board has been signed for the acquisition of land, and the acquisition is planned to be concluded by the end of 2020.
Altogether 809 plots of land in 14 local governments are to be acquired for the Rail Baltic railway project; the process is to be carried out on the basis of the Immovables Expropriation Act and laws concerning land consolidation. In comparison, Kaunissaare noted that 1,591 plots of land are to be acquired in Latvia and 1,259 plots of land in Lithuania.
In addition, Kaunissaare also gave an overview of ongoing and concluded research conducted in Estonia in connection with the planned railway.
With the addition of Ülemiste City, the Rail Baltic Business Network currently includes 20 members as well as one supporting member, the NGO Estonian Institute for Future Studies.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS