Private land needed for projects of special national importance can be taken more easily in Lithuania from August as the procedure for taking such land, simplified by the Seimas in July, comes into force on Thursday.
This will speed up the construction of the Rail Baltica European railway line and the implementation of other projects of particular importance to the country.
The state will be able to take over private plots of land needed for such projects in all cases, including whether the owner is working, living or operating on the land, or if the land has been leased or mortgaged, or if the owner’s rights to it have been otherwise restricted.
In one case, the state will enter into a commercial contract with the owner to take over the land and compensate them immediately, while in the other case it may have to go through courts and await a decision on the compensation of damages.
As conservative Kazys Starkevicius, the chair of the parliamentary Committee on Economics, told BNS earlier, the amendments will prevent landowners from preventing the state from taking over their land and implementing projects of particular national importance.
People whose land is taken will not be able to challenge this, and will only be able to go to a court to claim compensation for the land taken.
Source: BNS
(Reproduction of BNS information in mass media and other websites without written consent of BNS is prohibited.)