"The issues that caused the uproar have been resolved. The cable easement agreements have been signed, and Via Lietuva has also agreed on the technical design. It is just a matter of finalising the technical design now, making it public, ordering the cables and laying them," Litgrid CEO Rokas Masiulis told the LRT public radio on Wednesday morning.
The major bureaucratic hurdles have been overcome, but new ones may arise in the future, according to Masiulis.
"There will be tenders, we will see if (…) contractors will appeal against each other or not. The pace of cable manufacturing will depend on this. There will be a lot of permits needed along the way, but I believe everything should go smoothly," the Litgrid CEO said.
Masiulis said that a construction permit for the project is expected on 20 February 2025. The procurement of the contract works is planned to be completed in mid-2025, and the whole project should be finished in August 2027.
In mid-November, businessman Arvydas Paukštys announced that he would halt the construction of Teltonika High-Tech Hill park that would house a Taiwanese semiconductor chip factory valued at EUR 3.5 billion.
Paukštys said this was due to red tape, a shortage of electricity capacity and delays from the Ministry of Economy and Innovation to convert land to industrial use. He also stated that Via Lietuva, national road authority, was not allowing the laying of engineering networks in the road protection zone.
Paukštys is founder and main shareholder of Teltonika group and CEO of AGP Investments part of Teltonika group.