A special ceremony is held at the Marijampolė railway station to mark the start of the construction works.
Rail Baltica, currently the largest infrastructure project in Lithuania, involves all of the country's biggest road, railway and bridge construction companies.
A consortium of Kauno Tiltai, the Baltics' biggest road and bridge builder that is owned by Poland's Trakcja, and MG Baltic-controlled Mitnija has bagged the biggest order, worth 378 million litas, including 91 million litas for the renovation of Marijampolė railway station and 262 million litas for the upgrading of the Marijampolė-Šeštokai segment of the line.
A consortium of the French-owned Czech road and railway construction company Eurovia and Eurovia Lietuva is to upgrade the 18.5-kilometer Kazlų Rūda-Mauručiai segment for 197.6 million litas. Panevėžio Keliai, one of Lithuania's biggest road and railway construction companies, is to upgrade the 10.6-kilometer Mauručiai-Jiesia segment for 131.89 million litas, and a consortium led by Hidrostatyba is to upgrade the 14.2 Jiesia-Kaunas segment for 208.4 million litas.
Geležinkelio Tiesimo Centras, a subsidiary of Lietuvos Geležinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways), is to renovate the Šeštokai railway station for 47.5 million litas and to build the railway segment from the Lithuanian-Polish border to Mockava.
The Rail Baltica stretch from the Polish border to Kaunas is expected to be completed in 2015.
Rail Baltica is a Baltic transport project aimed at linking Poland to Finland via the three Baltic countries. The total length of the railway in Lithuania is 335 kilometers.
