Strategic state projects and land consolidation: case of Rail Baltica project

Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the impact on the strategic national significance project Rail Baltica on land holdings and to look at the alternative redevelopment of the affected areas through the implementation of land consolidation projects. Objectives of the study: 1) to review the experience of foreign countries applying land consolidation in major infrastructure projects; 2) to review the land consolidation projects carried out in Lithuania near road infrastructure objects; 3) to analyze the impact of the Rail Baltica project on the structure of land use; 4) to determine possible changes in the land use structure after the Rail Baltica project by carrying out consolidation projects. The research was conducted by applying these methods: analysis of literature, comparison, abstraction and interviewing. The results of the study revealed that there will be long-term benefits provided for the state’s economy, but the project will affect rational land use. The railway will have a direct and indirect impact on land parcels. For land plots divided into two sections, access roads were designed (Picture 1), but long-distance rides for farmers are not worthwhile. In many European countries land consolidation has been under way for more than a century in order to improve the use and cultivation of agricultural land and living conditions in the countryside. It is a special process of land management, when complex land plots are being restructured, the formation of rational farmland use, the improvement of their structure and the development of the necessary rural infrastructure [1]. Land fragmentation is not only a consequence of land reform or division of land. Linear infrastructure projects also can divide land into several plots and reduce land by the compulsory acquisition for the public's needs. Currently, Rail Baltica, an important railway project for all three Baltic states, requiring an acquisition of 1,300 private and public land plots (Lithuania), is ongoing [2]. This will determine the partitioning of land parcels into smaller plots and their arrangement on both sides of the infrastructure, which will result in economically inefficient farming.