October 2 (SeeNews) - Croatia will invest some 3.5 billion euro ($3.8 million) in the revamp of existing and the construction of new railway infrastructure by 2030, transport minister Oleg Butkovic said.
One of the most important projects is the renovation of the 229 km railway line linking the capital Zagreb with the Adriatic city of Rijeka, which is also a precondition for raising the operations of the Adriatic port of Riejka to their full capacity, Butkovic said in a government statement on Tuesday. He was speaking at a conference celebrating the 150th anniversary of the start of Zagreb-Rijeka line's construction.
The line is part of Pan-European Corridor V, branch B, which runs from Rijeka to Hungary's Budapest.
Butkovic also said that construction works have been underway on sections of the railway line from Zagreb to the Hungarian border, while the contract for the revamp and doubling of the 44 km railway linking Zagreb with the city of Karlovac in the north, i.e. the Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac section, will be signed by the end of the year.
The Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac section is part of the Zagreb-Rijeka railway.
Butkovic also noted that the project documentation for the second line of the coastal Skrljevo - Jurdani railway has been under preparation.
He added that many projects are co-financed by the European Union.
($=0.916748 euro)