Croatia says 473 mln euro railway project qualifies for EU co-financing

Experts from the JASPERS programme have submitted their positive stand on the proposal for EU co-financing of the project for the reconstruction of the existing Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac railway section and the construction of a parallel line to make the route double-tracked, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

JASPERS is a technical assistance partnership between the European Investment Bank and the European Commission and an important instrument of the EU's cohesion policy.

The EU's cohesion funds will finance 85% of the 2.7 billion kuna project value, which is eligible for financing, the ministry said. The remainder will come from the state budget.

The EC is expected to issue its official approval for the co-financing in the next three months, the statement said, adding a contract on the grant will be subsequently signed by the end of 2019 with state-owned railway infrastructure operator HZ Infrastruktura.

After that, HZ Infrastruktura will prepare and open tenders for works contractor and works supervisor.

The Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac section lies on the 229 km railway line linking Zagreb with the Adriatic city of Rijeka. The line is part of the Pan-European Corridor V, branch B, which runs from Rijeka to Hungary's Budapest.

The planned works will help improve the connections of the Rijeka port with the Central European markets such as Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, and thus help raise its competitiveness and turnover, the ministry said.

The Rijeka-Zagreb line is one of the priority railway projects in the government's 2017-2030 transport development strategy. The government aims to complete works on the line by 2030 and raise its capacity to more than 20 million tonnes annually.

(1 euro = 7.3945 kuna)