The €4.3 million contract was signed on Monday by the Minster for Transport and Infrastructure, Oleg Butkovic, the head of the Central Finance and Contracting Agency (SAFU) Tomislav Petric, and the head of the Zadar County Port Authority Davor Skibola.

 The ferry port will be located in the town of Tkon, on the central Dalmatian island of Pasman south of Zadar.

“The Tkon port has been the largest project of the Zadar Port Authority since its establishment in 1998. With this significant investment from the EU funds, and the support of the Ministry for Maritime Affairs, Transport and Infrastructure, the building of the Tkon ferry port will be finalized within the next two and a half years,” said the head of the Zadar Port Authority, Davor Skibola, Poslovni Dnevnik reports.

The port is the first of 28 projects financed by EU grants, and those investments will continue in the ports along the coast and on the islands, from the southern city of Dubrovnik, over the islands of Korcula, Brac, and Cres, to Pula in Istria.

“This is the first project in Croatia financed from the European ‘Competitiveness and Cohesion’ programme, from which €80 million is intended for port infrastructure projects on our coast,” Minister Butkovic said. “After Tkon we continue with projects on the northern and southern Adriatic which are currently in the preparation phase,” Butkovic added.

The Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014-2020 Operative Programme aims to boost economic competitiveness, support alignment with the EU environmental policy, and invest in transport and network infrastructure.

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