The work on the trunk line from the northern Adriatic town of Pula to Karlovac, 50 kilometres southwest of Zagreb, will be completed by the end of September, and this section will be integrated into the gas supply system in October, the minister said at a government session.
Also, the construction of trunk lines from Zagreb to Kutina (80 kilometres east of the capital) and from Kutina further east to Slavonski Brod has been completed and the gas pipeline from Zagreb's eastern suburb of Ivanja Reka to Lucko, south of Zagreb, is due to start operating by 18 December, according to the minister.
Vukelic said that extensive preparations were under way for connecting the Croatian gas supply system to the networks in neighbouring countries: Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary and Italy.
The government endorsed a report on the construction and modernisation of the gas supply transport system over the past five years.
It also commended the national fund for environmental protection and energy efficiency for providing one-off aid packages in the total amount of 1.4 billion kuna to the local authorities of 261 towns and municipalities last year for the reconstruction and improvement of local dump sites.
Investing in waste management means investing in new jobs and environmental protection, the fund's director, Vinko Mladineo, told the government.
A hundred and sixty-two dump sites are currently being upgraded, Environment Protection and Zoning Minister Marina Matulovic Dropulic said.
Croatia is also achieving good results in the collection of packaging waste, with 320 million items of packaging having been collected so far for recycling, she said.