Over 500 disgruntled workers of the Pruzne Gradjevine, the state-owned railway company that specializes in the construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure, protested outside the government on Monday to warn about "the serious situation" in this company with 1,400 employees, state news agency Hina said.

“This is the only Croatian company specializing in the construction and maintenance of railways,” Hina explained.

The protesting workers warned that “the absence of large-scale investments in rail maintenance” has plunged this state-owned company “into trouble,” forcing it to potentially face state receivership and layoffs.

“According to an estimate provided by the World Bank, it is necessary to invest 1 billion kuna every year in the maintenance of Croatia’s railway network while currently, the annual allocation for this purpose is 200 million kuna,” Hina cited unnamed protesters as saying.

They “voiced their disagreement” with the transfer of state-owned Pruzne Gradjevine Ltd from the state-owned HZ Infrastruktura to the also state-owned Centre for Restructuring and Sales (CERP), Hina added.

After the protest rally, Transport Ministry official, Alen Gospocic explained that the decision to transfer the company from one state-owned ownership to another was intended to allow Pruzne Gradjevine to apply for EU-funded tenders. Gospocic said that “the investment cycle in the next 10 years” was put at €3.5 billion.

“He recalled the deals on projects worth 600 million kuna in the next three years that involve the company,” Hina said, without clarifying.

(€1 = 7.52 kuna)