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Latvian audit firm to conduct cost-benefit analysis of Rail Baltica II project

Xinhua, October 2, 2015 Adjust font size:

A Latvian-registered audit firm has won a tender to analyze the costs and benefits of Rail Baltica II European standard-gauge railway project, the Latvian procurement monitoring bureau said on its website.

RB Rail, a joint venture established by Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia for the implementation of Rail Baltica II, organized the tender which was won by Latvia's Ernst & Yong Baltic.

Other bids in the tender were submitted by Latvian audit firms KPMG Baltics and PricewaterhouseCoopers, Estonia's Civitta Eesti and Germany's DB International GmbH.

The cost-benefit analysis is one of the preconditions for receiving co-funding for the railway project from the European Commission's Connecting Europe Facility (CEF).

The winner of the tender is expected to complete the analysis within 17 months of signing the contract.

The Rail Baltica II project is intended to link Finland, the Baltic states and Poland and also improve the connection between Central and Northern Europe and Germany. The project is expected to facilitate regional integration by means of a railway link from Helsinki that would link Tallinn, Riga, Kaunas, Warsaw and Berlin and might potentially be extended to Venice. It is planned that 85 percent of the projects costs will be financed from the EU funds.

The Rail Baltica II line will be about 360 km long in Lithuania, more than 300 km long in Latvia and roughly 300 km long in Estonia.

Ernst & Young Baltica is the Latvian division of Ernst & Young, one of the world's four largest audit firms. Endit