Transport and Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butkovic said on Monday that work on the construction of the Peljesac Bridge is expected to begin in mid-July.

The contract has been signed and the funds secured, that's the first stage, he told the state-owned Croatian Radio.

The bridge will be 2.4 kilometres long and 55 metres tall and will have four lanes. It will connect the Dubrovnik-Neretva County in the south of the country with the rest of Croatia, allowing road traffic to circumvent a short coastal strip belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina around the town of Neum.

The Peljesac Bridge will be built by the Chinese consortium China Road and Bridge Corporation (CRBC), and the construction of the bridge and its access roads will be overseen by the Croatian construction company Institut IGH.

Speaking of the situation in Croatian Railways, Butkovic said the bulk of the investments in the transport sector would go into railways.

“Next year we are inviting (bids). Psychologically, that's the most important project. We are going on with the Zagreb-Rijeka railway. Hrvatski Leskovac-Karlovac is the first section, a project worth EUR 300 million starting next year. And in August this year, we are continuing with the Koprivnica-Krizevci-Hungarian border section. The funds have been secured two years ago.”

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