December 12 (SeeNews) - The European Commission said on Thursday it has approved an investment of more than 311 million euro ($346 million) from the Cohesion Fund in a project for the upgrade of a 44-km Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac railway section in Croatia.
The project will limit the negative impact of transport on the environment by contributing to the shift from road to rail for both freight and passengers, will reduce travel time and increase safety, the Commission added.
The Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac section lies on Croatia's Zagreb-Rijeka railway, one of Croatia's main logistics routes. The upgraded section is expected to be operational in October 2023.
In July, Croatian railway infrastructure operator HZ Infrastruktura said it will open a tender for the revamp of the Hrvajski Leskovac-Karlovac section at the end of the year. The section is part of the Rijeka-Zagreb-Budapest branch of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) Mediterranean corridor, and of European Rail Freight Corridor 6, which runs through the Mediterranean region.
The Mediterranean corridor connects Croatia to neighbouring Hungary and Slovenia, and Southern Europe to Eastern Europe, from Spain to the Ukrainian border. The Croatian part of the Mediterranean corridor stretches from the border with Hungary via Zagreb to the Adriatic port of Rijeka, thus helping to increase the port's cargo traffic and strengthening its competitiveness.
($=0.897564 euro)