An agreement granting 38 million kuna (€5.1 million) from the European Union's Cohesion Fund and the state budget for the purchase of 22 new buses for the Autotrolej public transport company in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka was signed on Monday.

The project, worth 38 million kuna, of which 32.3 million kuna, or 85 percent, comes from the Cohesion Fund and 5.7 million kuna from the state budget.

Mayor of Rijeka, Vojko Obersnel, said that an additional 32 buses would be purchased under the Urban Agglomeration project. With the 54 new buses, worth over 100 million kuna overall (€13.5 million), the average age of public buses serving Rijeka would be reduced from the cirrent 11 years to just six years, he added.

Transport Minister Oleg Butkovic said that a tender for the procurement of new buses for public transport companies in Croatian cities had been signed in May 2017, and that the total value of agreements signed to date, including the agreement for Rijeka, was 222 million kuna (€30 million). He added that getting new vehicles would increase the quality of public transport services and reduce the harmful effects on the environment produced by older vehicles.

Butkovic said that 14 billion kuna (€1.9 billion) worth of EU-funded agreements had been signed over the last year, since he was appointed to head the ministry.

Later in the day, Butkovic is also due to sign a grant agreement on the nearby northern Adriatic island of Cres. The project, which concerns the reconstruction and extension of the western part of the harbour at the town of Cres, is worth 39.2 million kuna (€5.3 million).

(€1 = 7.39 kuna)

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