Over the next year, much-talked-about works on the Hrvatski Leskovac - Karlovac lowland railway section are finally set to begin, with a little help from Croatian access to EU funding.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Darko Bicak writes on the 12th of September, 2019, the reconstruction project for the existing track, and the construction of a second track of the Rijeka - Zagreb railway line on the 40.02 km Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac section, which is highly significant for the implementation of the Croatian lowland railway project, is eligible for co-financing from European Union (EU) funds, the Ministry of the Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure reported yesterday.
The competent ministry explained that JASPERS experts have now submitted a positive opinion to the Croatian Ministry of Regional Development and European Union (EU) Funds, a so-called IQR, for the proposal to co-finance the aforementioned project, with a total value of 3.5 billion kuna (with VAT included).
The ministry has since clarified that they do expect an official decision by the European Commission (EC) to give them the green light and ultimately approve the financing of the project within the next three months, and that the contract attesting to that will be signed by the end of this year.
The total eligible costs for co-financing are 2.7 billion kuna (excluding VAT), 85 percent of which will be co-financed through the Operational Program for Competitiveness and Cohesion, and the rest will come from the Croatian state budget.
The lowland railway will affect the overall competitiveness of the Port of Rijeka in the Northern part of the Adriatic by improving its connectivity with markets across Central Europe, such as those of Hungary, Slovakia and Poland, the ministry stated.
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