HZ Infrastruktura, a subsidiary of the Croatian railway operator HZ, on Monday signed two contracts for the project "Signal and Security System at Zagreb's Main Railway Station" - a contract on construction work, signed with a consortium comprised of Siemens Austria and Elektrom from Zagreb, and a contract on the supervision of construction work, signed with the Spanish company Tecnica y proyests (TYPSA).
The ceremony of signing the Contracts for the conduction and supervision of the conducting of the conotracting works attended Minister of the Sea, Transport and Infrastructure, Bozidar Kalmeta, HZ Infrastruktura management board president Branimir Jerneic, Paul Vandoren, Head of the Delegation of the European Union in Croatia and the Spanish Ambassador in Croatia H.E. Manuel Salazar also attended at today's ceremony of signing the first two out of three contracts related to the project system safety signaling devices to Zagreb Main Railway Station.
The Contracts will be co-financed by the EU's Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) in the value of 12.6 million EUR, and 15 percent will come from the state budget, and is one of three projects under the Operational Programme for Transport 2007th-2012th.
The Minister stressed that this is a huge project of the railway modernization, and he hoped that this project wich includes the renovation of the railway 'Vinkovci-Tovarnik', also will prepare state railways for the effective liberalization of the rail transport.
Minister Kalmeta also stressed that the fact that after almost 70 years the signal-detection system will be changed on the main train station speaks enough to the importance of signing of this Contract, and that the Railways in the transport and economic sense are one of the pillars of the economy and inevitably wich requires investments in modernization.
"When it comes to the number of employees, but always in consultation with trade union partners, showed a decrease, in order to prepare the HZ for liberalization and competition that will come." - said minister Kalmeta, adding that the railways are increasingly prepared to be able to get funding from pre-accession funds, and when we join the EU, projects will be financed from the Structural Funds.
Jerneic said that construction works would be launched in the first half of 2011, and completed by the end of the year 2012. The new devices will allow a better flow of train traffic around the intersection of Zagreb, and will reduce the travel time of passenger trains, wich would be of a great benefit for the 80,000 passengers who daily use the suburban rail.
Paul Vandoren said that this is another project on Corridor X, funded by the EU and that during negotiations the Union has given support for projects in this corridor is extremely important for the European interests.
Vendoren added that Croatia has to learn from the process of restructuring the European railways and achieve goals that are defined in the White Paper. He also stressed that Croatia after the EU accession will be available to gain more from the EU-funds, which will also encourage the investments in infrastructure.
The signing was also attended by members of the HZ Holding and other senior state officials.