As Morski writes on the 14th of July, 2019, the project for the construction of the water-infrastructure infrastructure of the agglomeration Jelsa-Vrboska and Stari Grad on the island of Hvar finally got the green light, and an impressive 474 million kuna in funding has been secured for the all of the necessary works.

Most of the funds have been secured from European Union funding. Of this amount, 270 million kuna will go to projects in the Municipality of Jelsa on Hvar, according to the Mayor of that municipality, Nikša Peronja.

Jelsa was visited by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, where he met with Mayor Nikša Peronja, and also attended the signing of the grant agreement and the co-financing agreement for the aforementioned project, worth 474 million kuna.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković congratulated everyone who contributed to the quality of this project, saying that it would enable a much higher quality of life for all the inhabitants of the central part of the island of Hvar, but also for the many visitors and tourists coming to this island. He stressed that this is an added value of Croatia's membership of the European Union and that such funds from Croatia, from both local and regional self-government units, could not have achieved this.

''This [cash] injection which is a result of our membership in the European Union will now be more clearly seen and the project will be realised in the next forty months, it will truly change the quality of life for our fellow citizens on Hvar,'' said Plenković.

The mayor of Jelsa spoke about the part of the project related to the reconstruction of tourist infrastructure on Facebook.

"For the construction of drainage, and consequently the tourist infrastructure, in terms of paving of all of the streets, squares and the coastal belt in Jelsa and Vrboska, there's 270.000.000,00 kn (two hundred and seventy million) for the MUNICIPALITY OF JELSA!''

The total value of the project is 380 million kuna, of which about 270 million kuna will be spent on Jelsa and Vrboska, and the rest on the City of Stari Grad.

The contracts were concluded in the presence of the President of the Government of the Republic of Croatia Andrej Plenković, Minister of Environmental Protection and Energy Tomislav Čoric, Minister of Regional Development and European Funds, Gabrijela Žalac, and others.

As stated, most of the funds have been secured from EU Funds, part from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, part from Croatian Waters, and part from their own funds.

All of the necessary building permits have been issued for the works on Hvar, and construction tenders have been published. If everything is in order, the works should start next winter, run for a period of three years, except during the tourist season, and the project must be completed by the end of 2022.

In this way, the Municipality of Jelsa will become one of the largest EU beneficiaries in terms of population in the Republic of Croatia and we must be proud of that fact.

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