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Tuesday, 10.09.2024, 04:55
Estonian govt supports cheaper option for eastern border
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Interior Minister Mart Helme presented the alternative
to the construction of the eastern border to the Cabinet on Thursday, and the
Cabinet backed the solution according to which the number of components in the
construction of the border infrastructure will be reduced and the project made
less costly.
The government also decided on the basis of the solution put
before it to earmark additionally 12 mln euros for the construction of the land
border in addition to the 79.9 mln allocated earlier. In accordance with the
new calculations, the construction will cost 130.5 mln euros, 57.5 mln euros
less than the design looked at earlier.
Prime Minister Juri Ratas said that the decision of
the government was unanimous and construction of the border will start already
in the first half of next year.
Ratas added that in accordance with the plan presented by
the Interior Ministry and the Police and Border Guard Board, a secure border
will be constructed which enables to detect and identify all border violations
and respond to them rapidly enough when necessary.
"The new plan is based on adjusted calculations and
clearer needs, which however does not mean yielding on the quality or the
security of the border. We are putting emphasis on effectiveness
and practicability," Ratas said.
Interior Minister Mart Helme said that the government
decided in favor of an option that is more favorable financially than the
project looked at previously, while being also effective. He said that in
accordance with the option chosen, it will be possible to take into use modern technological
solutions in the next stages of the construction of the border. Helme said that
in the new option an animal fence and a sand strip have been discarded, while
the patrol road will be constructed in some sections of the border with patrolling
in light vehicles rather than in jeeps in mind.
"Construction of the infrastructure is very important
-- its is the prerequisite for the establishment of the monitoring system. For
the monitoring systems we are planning to use European Union funds to the maximum
extent," Helme said.
"We will install the monitoring equipment -- cameras,
drones and drone identification systems -- on the border when the
infrastructure has been completed. Construction of the border infrastructure,
fences and roads will take several years. Delaying the acquisition of
monitoring technology until the end of construction enables to acquire more
state-of-the-art technology," the interior minister said.
The construction tender for the first section of the border
measuring 23.5 kilometers in length was announced by the Police and Border
Guard Board in January this year. In the tender the changes arising from the
decision made by the government on Thursday will be taken into account, and the
outcome is to become clear by the end of this year.
Construction work of said section of the border to the north
of the point where the national borders of Estonia, Latvia and Russia meet is
expected to start in the first half of 2020. The infrastructure of the land
border is to be built in four stages.
Of the 79.9 mln euros allocated for designing and
construction of the border, 24.4 mln euros has been spent to date. For that
money three new surveillance points have been established on Narva River,
markers of the border acquired for Lake Peipsi, the design of the land border
prepared and test sections of the border built in 2016-2019.