February 4 (SeeNews) - Croatian state-owned railway infrastructure operator HZ Infrastruktura has signed a 170 million kuna ($25 million/23 million euro) deal with Austria's Swietelsky for the revamp of 21 kilometres of railways, the government said.
Works on the renovation of the Virovitica-Pitomaca railway section in the northern part of the country are expected to last 18 months, after which trains will be able to travel at 100 kilometres per hour, up from the current speed of 80 kilometres per hour, the government said in a statement on Monday when the deal was signed.
HZ Infrastruktura will finance the project via a commercial loan supported by state guarantees.
The Virovitica-Pitomaca section is part of the Varazdin-Koprivnica-Virovitica-Osijek-Dalj railway line, and is the first of three sections planned for renovation in the next five years. For the purpose, HZ Infrastruktura has secured financing of 449 million kuna.
The other two sections are Pitomaca-Virje (22 km) and Virje-Koprivnica (20 km).
Railway construction works worth some 1.5 billion euro ($1.7 billion) are ongoing in Croatia, with the country planning transport to invest 3.5 billion euro in railway modernisation by 2030, transport minister Oleg Butkovic said in the statement.
(1 euro = 7.44608 kuna)