AGREEMENT ON 3 TUNNEL CONSTRUCTION SITES REACHED

ZAGREB/DELNICE, Jan 29 (Hina) - The representatives of the Rijeka- Zagreb Highway company (ARZ) and of the French company Spie Batignoles on Tuesday signed a letter of understanding on the take- over of the construction sites of three tunnels -- Veliki Glozac, Javorova Kosa and Pod Vugles on the Rijeka-Zagreb highway. The letter of understanding pertains to the take-over of the value of the works which were carried out until August 10 of last year, and have been calculated in line with the constructor's final account dating September 7, 2001, as well as the equipment and material left on the site. After the report on the take-over was drawn up, the workers of the Spie Batignoles and the Mediterranean Union Tunnel (MUT) companies left the construction sites, after which the ARZ took over the site. As an agreement has been reached, ARZ representatives dropped their court action to settle issues with the French company. The Croatian government decided to rescind an agreement on construction works on the three tunnels, signed on November 13, 1998 between the ARZ, Spie Batignoles and MUT. New constructors were appointed via a public tender, who could not get to the construction sites because the workers of the two companies would not let them. (hina) lml sb