The Cabinet of Ministers is buying up land parcels in Baldo…

The Cabinet of Ministers, by Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 701, has decided to purchase a portion of the real estate “Saulrieši” in Baldone Parish, Ķekava Municipality. The purchase is intended for the implementation of the project “Construction of the European standard gauge 1435 mm railway line in the “Rail Baltica” corridor through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania”. The notice was published in Latvijas Vēstnesis on November 11, 2026, in issue No. 218, with the official reference OP 2026/218, in the “CONSTITUTIONAL INSTITUTIONS” section.

What was decided and how the decision was published

The issuer of the decision is the Cabinet of Ministers; the type of legal act is an order, registered under number No. 701 and published as point 34 of the official publication. The same issue also includes the Cabinet of Ministers Meeting Minutes No. 62, which summarizes the decisions of the respective meeting.

The subject of the order is specifically the “purchase of a portion” — the state is not expropriating the property in an administrative procedure, but is purchasing the necessary portion for the project’s needs. The notice specifies the name and number of the order; neither the amount of compensation nor the property’s cadastre designation is mentioned.

Baldone Parish for the third time in 2026

“Saulrieši” is not the first property in this parish about which the government has made a decision this year. On August 18, 2026, Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 477 regarding the purchase of a portion of the real estate “Krastiņi” in Baldone Parish for the needs of the same project was published in Latvijas Vēstnesis No. 157 (OP 2026/157).

Also published in the same August 18 issue was Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 479 regarding the purchase of a portion of the real estate “Krūklas” in Daugmale Parish, Ķekava Municipality. Together with the November decision, this means that the acquisition of properties for the Rail Baltica corridor within the territory of Ķekava Municipality has occurred in at least three instances.

Property purchases continue in Limbaži Municipality as well

Similar decisions were made in 2026 outside of Ķekava Municipality:

September 11, 2026, No. 175 (OP 2026/175): Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 537 regarding the purchase of a portion of the property “Laipas” in Salacgrīva Parish, Limbaži Municipality.
October 12, 2026, No. 196 (OP 2026/196): Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 622 regarding the purchase of a portion of the property “Runči” in Salacgrīva Parish, Limbaži Municipality.
November 11, 2026, No. 218 (OP 2026/218): Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 703 regarding the purchase of a portion of the property “Dūmnieki” in Aizpute Parish, Limbaži Municipality.

In all cases, the wording is identical and refers to the same project with the European standard gauge of 1435 mm and the route through three countries — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

What the notice does not reveal

The official announcement is skeletal: it mentions neither the size of the area to be expropriated, nor the amount of compensation, nor the property cadastre designation. No specific date by which the purchase must be completed is indicated either.

This means that the public learns about state expenditures in a specific transaction only from separate, later documents or from land register entries, rather than from the publication of the order itself.

Why this is important for readers

Each such order is an individual government decision regarding a specific piece of land; therefore, the overall picture can only be seen if all publications are tracked. For property owners in Ķekava municipality and Limbaži municipality, this is a direct signal that their land is within the project corridor and that negotiations for purchase could begin at any moment.

At the same time, the sequential decisions indicate that the land acquisition for the northern section is proceeding gradually, property by property, rather than in a single collective wave of expropriation. This gradual approach affects both the project schedule and the traceability of costs — the greater the number of individual orders, the harder it is to assess the total volume of compensation for the land already acquired without additional data.

Official source: Latvijas Vēstnesis, November 11, 2026, No. 218, official reference OP 2026/218, section “CONSTITUTIONAL INSTITUTIONS”, point 34: “On the purchase of a part of the real estate “Saulrieši” in Baldone parish, Ķekava municipality, for the implementation of the project “Construction of the 1435 mm European standard gauge railway line in the “Rail Baltica” corridor through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania” — Cabinet of Ministers Order No. 701. Publication: https://www.vestnesis.lv/url/17029?content=1; corpus file vestnesis-2026-11-11-218.full.md.