The deadline for appeals expired today, and Kalmeta said that no appeals had been received.
The consortium consists of eight construction companies -- Konstruktor Inzenjering d.d., Viadukt d.d., Hidroelektra niskogradnja d.d., Cesta Varazdin d.d., Strabag d.o.o., Zagorje Tehnobeton d.d., INGRA d.d. and Osijek Koteks d.d.
Four bids were submitted. The second best bid was offered by the association of Czech company Metrostav and Slovak company Doprastav, amounting to 5.4 billion kuna. US company Bechtel offered 5.9 billion kuna, while the most expensive offer came from Austrian company Alpine Mayrider Bau -- 6.4 billion kuna.
Kalmeta said that the construction would have cost about 40 million kuna less than the amount of the accepted bid if the original idea of awarding the project to Bechtel without tender last year had been accepted.
The government today provided the Croatian Highways company with guarantees for a 150 million euro loan with Privredna Banka Zagreb, Zagrebacka Banka and Raiffeisen Bank for the construction of highways under the 2005-2008 road construction programme.
The loan will repayable within 14 years with a grace period of four years at a variable interest rate of 4.09 per cent.
The Dugopolje-Ploce section is divided into three parts. The stretch from Dugopolje to Sestanovac should be completed by June 30, 2007, while the stretches from Sestanovac to Ravca and from Ravca to Ploce should be finished by December 30, 2008.