Minister Butkovic attended the signing of the Contract to reconstruct Virovitica – Pitomaca railway line

The state-owned rail company HZ Infrastruktura and the Austrian company Swietelsky signed an agreement in Virovitica (150 kilometres east of Zagreb) on Monday for the reconstruction of the 21-kilometre-long railway line between Virovitica and Pitomaca, a project worth about HRK 170 million (€23 m).

The work is expected to be completed in 18 months. The project will be financed with a commercial loan backed by a state guarantee. The upgraded line will allow trains to run at a speed of 100 kilometres an hour, which, compared with the present 80 km/h, will cut travel time and make travel safer.

The Virovitica-Pitomaca section is part of the railway line connecting Varazdin, Koprivnica, Virovitica, Osijek and Dalj and is the first of the total of three sections for which HZ Infrastruktura has secured HRK 449 million (€60 m) for the next five year period. The other two sections are Pitomaca-Virje (22 km) and Virje-Koprivnica (20 km).

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butkovic said that this project was part of a major railway investment cycle. "Currently we are building railway infrastructure worth a total of €1.5 billion. These are mainly the most important transport corridors in Croatia, but we are also taking care of regional lines to ensure that all counties are adequately connected," he said.

Zvonko Dundovic of Swietelsky said that this company has been present in the Croatian construction market for more than 20 years and has reconstructed more than 500 kilometres of railway tracks to date.

(€1 = HRK 7.436)

(Hina)

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