Border crossing points on the Belarusian-Latvian border are being reconstructed under a grant from an international project.

A major international technical assistance infrastructure project "Modernisation of the Urbany - Silene (Latvia-Belarus) border crossing point" will be implemented on the Belarusian-Latvian border, the Vitebsk customs informed a BELTA correspondent.

The project is financed by the European Union with co-financing from the Belarusian and Latvian sides. The European Union's contribution to the project financing amounts to 4.57 million euros, including 3.5 million euros for Belarus.

The complex of works planned in accordance with it is aimed at expanding the roadway between "Urbany" and "Silene" to three lanes in each direction, separated by a pedestrian walkway (one lane for freight transport; passenger cars/buses; emergency/diplomatic transport). Currently, the road surface between the road border crossing points has only 2 lanes (one for entry into Belarus and one for exit), which leads to a "bottleneck" effect.

Also, under the project, the Belarusian side plans to construct a stationary inspection and screening complex for scanning vehicles. The use of this complex and non-intrusive (without opening) customs inspection technology will make it possible to more effectively counter international terrorism and smuggling of weapons, drugs, cigarettes, alcoholic beverages and other goods, as well as contribute to improving the quality of customs control and reducing transport downtime associated with the need for customs control operations. It is expected that the time for customs inspection of transport will be reduced from 3 hours (in total) to 10 minutes.

"The implementation of the project will enhance the transit attractiveness of Belarus," the customs noted.

Currently, large-scale reconstruction is underway at the "Urbany" border crossing point. The work is being carried out without closing the crossing point, and all services are operating normally. The first construction phase has already been commissioned, and the administrative and production building, buildings for sanitary, veterinary and phytosanitary control services, a weight and size control point, and vehicle clearance modules are under active construction. The second construction phase is planned to be commissioned in November of the current year, and the overall completion of the reconstruction is scheduled for December 2020.