Construction of new Split Airport terminal expected to begin next spring

The Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, Sinisa Hajdas Doncic, announced on Saturday that the construction of a new terminal at Split Airport could begin next spring, which would make it possible for this airport to handle over two million passengers annually.

"The estimated value of the new terminal is 450 million kuna. The Construction Ministry should issue a building permit by the end of this month, after which a tender will be advertised. If everything goes under fast-track procedure, I expect that work could begin in the spring of 2016," Hajdas Doncic told the press in Kastela, near Split, where he visited the building site of a fast road between Kastel Gomilica and Kastel Stari.

He stressed that no state guarantees would be necessary for the construction of the new airport terminal, adding that a larger portion of the investment would be financed by the Split Airport company itself and the rest would be financed with a favourable loan from the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

The minister said that the Kastel Gomilica-Kastel Stari road, 85 per cent of which is co-financed with EU funds, would be completed by October 2016. He said that this road was very important because it would relieve the traffic on the present road, which is used by about 25,000 vehicles daily at the height of the tourist season.

Hajdas Doncic said that the total cost of three projects in the Kastela-Trogir area -- the Ciovo bridge, the Kastel Gomilica-Kastel Stari road and the new airport terminal -- would exceed one billion kuna.

(1 euro = 7.62 kuna)

(Hina)