Ministry of Transport and Communications

When the Council of Lithuania declared (on 16 February 1918) the re-establishment of independence, from the very first days the idea was fostered about the creation of transport system as one of the most important sectors of economy of an independent country.

On 4 November 1918 the Presidium of the Council of Lithuania commissioned prof. Augustinas Voldemaras to form the Cabinet of Ministers the composition of which was approved on 11 November. Three ministers were not assignedin it due to different disagreements: the ministers of national defence, public works and nutrition, and transport. Under such circumstances the Minister of Finance Martynas Ycas agreed to serveas the Acting Minister of Transport and Communications by, at the same time creating the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

In 1918 November 14 M. Ycas founded the Council of the Ministry of Transport and Communications the members of which became engineers J. Ciurlys, B. Tamoshevicius, J. Shimoliunas and A. Rachlinas-Rumiancevas. On the basis of the of the Order No. 1 of December 1918 of the Minister of Transport and Communications those persons were commissioned to manage all the affairs related to railway and other transportation activities.

It was already projected for from the very beginning that the Ministry of Transport and Communications would manage the activities of railway, fleet, commercial aviation, land transport, and post, telephone and telegraph sectors. The motorways of rather poor condition and scarce transportation means were inherited by the Ministry from the former tsarist empire and German occupation authority.

Therefore, one of the principal tasks from the very beginning was to indicate the guidelines of the activities all the institutions and organizations subordinate to the Ministry focussed on the creation of transport system of the independent Lithuania.

After the occupation of Lithuania by the Soviet army on 15 June 1940 the Soviet authorities started to plane the liquidation of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The Ministry had been liquidated from 16 September 1940 and the institutions subordinate to it had been attributed to different ministries and establishments of the USSR.

When Lithuania regained its independence the new Government was formed on 22 March 1990, and the Ministry of Transport and Communications was re-established as well. From the very first days of its activities the most important tasks of the Ministry included taking over of the transport sector from the subordination of all-union ministries, creation of new transport strategy and legal system, integration of the Lithuanian transport sector into the European transport network.