On Thursday, representatives of EPSO-G presented the progress of the project to the Supervision Commission for the Physical Barrier on the Border with Belarus, chaired by the Prime Minister. The project promoters have 5 kilometres of concertina and about 85 kilometres of fencing to complete at the border. The entire length of the barrier, approximately 540 kilometres, will be in place by the beginning of September.
This week, the final construction act was signed for the construction of more than 100-kilometre-long barrier, signifying the completion of the first phase of the project. After several weeks of expert assessments, it has been confirmed that the construction work on the most vulnerable border sections has been carried out properly. Construction work on these sections was completed about two months ago.
The physical barrier is currently, during the second phase of the project, being built by more than 700 contractors from EPSO-G, who are blocking around 3–4 kilometres of the border with Belarus every day. Most of the materials needed for the construction of the physical barrier have already arrived in Lithuania. The project is expected to be completed within the foreseen budget of EUR 152 million.
Once the main construction work is completed, the barrier is equipped with gates for border guards to access the state border signs, the construction sites and their accesses are cleaned up, the roads are rebuilt, and the quality of the work is evaluated by technical supervisors.
The total length of the Lithuanian border with Belarus is 679 kilometres. More than 100 kilometres of the border is along the banks of rivers and lakes, where no physical barrier is planned.
The Project Supervision Commission is chaired by Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė and includes the Ministers of the Interior, Energy, National Defence, Environment and Finance, the Head of the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), the Commander of the State Territorial Planning and Construction Inspectorate under the Ministry of Environment, and a representative of the EPSO-G Company Group implementing the project.