The contract, signed on 18 May, involves a 30-km long parallel pipeline between Pajari and Kymijoki. The new pipeline will increase transmission capacity in the whole network area, necessary because use of natural gas in the region is estimated to considerably increase in the future. Construction work started this month (June), and is planned to be complete by June, 2005, at which time the new pipeline will be connected to the country’s natural gas network. The contract includes laying the gas line under the river Kymijoki, the first such crossing in Finland.