VILNIUS, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- RB Rail, the pan-Baltic joint venture coordinating the Rail Baltica project, and Lithuanian Railways (LTG) Infra have signed a 38.3-million-euro (44.4 million U.S. dollars) contract with German design company Deutsche Bahn Engineering & Consulting.

Under the deal, the German designer, part of the German Deutsche Bahn group, will design the nearly 100 km electrified, double-track European gauge railway line from Lithuania's border with Poland through Marijampole to the country's second-largest city, Kaunas (Jiesia), LTG announced on Monday.

"The Rail Baltica link with Poland is our gateway to Western Europe. We expect it to be the first route where high-speed, European standard-gauge trains will begin operating," Minister of Transport and Communications Eugenijus Sabutis said in a LTG press release.

According to Baltic News Service reports, the new line will integrate the Baltic States into the European standard gauge rail network, featuring modern traffic control and signaling systems to enable faster and more efficient train services. Meanwhile, the existing line, built a decade ago, will remain in use for freight transportation, including military mobility cargo.

The entire Rail Baltica project, which connects the Baltic countries with central Europe, is scheduled for completion by 2030. The Lithuania-Poland section is expected to be completed by 2028. (1 euro = 1.16 U.S. dollar) ■