Development projects of the Port of Rijeka and Rijeka Gateway presented in Rijeka

In the presence of the Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butković, development projects conducted by the Port of Rijeka Authority and HŽ Infrastructure and co-financed by the funds from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), were presented in Rijeka on Wednesday, 19 July. There are totally nine projects situated along the Rijeka Gateway. Almost 2,6 billion kunas have been approved for their financing.

Some of the presented projects are: Reconstruction of the railway station Rijeka - Brajdica and construction of intermodal terminal on container terminal Brajdica, Reconstruction of the cargo section of the railway station Rijeka-Cargo and construction of intermodal terminal on container terminal Zagreb Pier, Reconstruction of the pier for general cargo in Raša port, Port Community System, Reconstruction of the existing and construction of additional railway track on section Križevci – Koprivnica – state border, Production of design documentation for section of railway track Škrljevo – Rijeka – Jurdani, Development of multimodal platform in the Port of Rijeka and connection with container terminal Adriatic Gate, as well as other projects.

The mentioned projects are situated along the Rijeka Gateway which connects the Port of Rijeka and Hungary with a railway. The realization of the mentioned projects will enable the railway system to participate equally and competitively on the European transportation market, as well as better traffic connections of the of Port of Rijeka. This will have a long-term influence on the increase of competitiveness of the Croatia’s biggest port.

“Investments into the Port of Rijeka can attain their full potential only if we parallel develop the railway infrastructure and road D403. We are intensively working on that, which is demonstrated by the projects presented today, whose importance has been recognized on the European level as well, and which are a part of the strategic commitment of the Government of the Republic of Croatia to improve the transport sector”, said Minister Butković in Rijeka. Minister Butković further explained that the new Krk port, together with the railway, has been included in the Transport development strategy of the Republic of Croatia which will be adopted by the Croatian Government by the end of August. The Minister also announced the publication of the tender for concession of Zagreb Pier, which is also going to be financed by CEF funds. 

The nine presented projects are just a part of totally 32 projects approved by the CEF. 3,2 billion kunas have been approved for their financing, which is 93,05 % of the total CEF funds Croatia has available for the development of its transport connections.

However, beside the CEF programme coordination, for investments into transport infrastructure and services, the Ministry of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure also uses funds from the EU’s Operational programme “Competitiveness and Cohesion”. So far, the Ministry has with the beneficiaries signed agreements in the value of 7,6 billion kunas, i.e. 80 % of the granted 9,9 billion kunas Croatia has available for the development of its transport connections, which are a key factor of a modern, competitive and interconnected economy.

With the approval of 3,2 billion kunas from the CEF and by contracting 7,6 billion kunas from the Operational programme “Competitiveness and Cohesion”, the current total investments into development of transport infrastructure and services co-financed by EU funds amount to 10,8 billion kunas.

We shall mention that beside Minister Oleg Butković, the presentation of projects approved by CEF was attended by the State Secretary for the Sea Maja Markovčić Kostelac, acting director of the Port of Rijeka Authority Marino Juretić, representatives of Primorje-Gorski Kotar County and the City of Rijeka, as well as the representatives of HŽ Infrastructure, Port of Rijeka j.s.c. and Port of Ploče Authority.