The Police and Border Guard Board (PPA), Merko Ehitus Eesti and AS GRK Infra signed a contract for the first stage of construction of the infrastructure on Estonia’s southeastern border. According to current estimates, construction of the 23.5-kilometer section of the border will take up to three years and cost nearly EUR 20 million.
Construction work on the first stage of the southeastern border will run along a narrow 23.5-kilometer strip in Voru County spanning from the point where the borders of Estonia, Latvia and Russia meet until the southern shore of Lake Vanigojarv in the village of Tserebi, 3.5 kilometers north of the Luhamaa border checkpoint, the PPA announced.
Last summer, the government decided to partially reduce elements of planned border infrastructure. Thus a planned sand strip and wildlife fence were removed from infrastructure plans, and it was decided to narrow the planned patrol strip in some parts.
The construction tender does not include monitoring equipment or IT solutions, which will be procured separately once the physical infrastructure is complete.
Construction of Estonia’s eastern land border was divided up into several stages in order to ensure more equal opportunities for tenderers participating in procurements as well as ensure that the works remain feasible for builders, remain on schedule and are high quality, ensuring that high-quality border security can be guaranteed decades from now as well.
Once work has begun on the first section of the border, construction procurements for subsequent sections will be drawn up and announced as well.
Thus far, some EUR 25 million has been invested in planning Estonia’s eastern land border, building test sections, installing border markers, installing border buoys on Lake Peipus as well as additional monitoring sites on the Narva River. (ERR/Business World Magazine)
