CROATIAN PRESIDENT OPENS SECTION OF ZAGREB-RIJEKA HIGHWAY

LEPENICA, Nov 30 (Hina) - Croatian President Franjo Tudjman on Saturday opened a section of a future highway linking Zagreb to the northern Adriatic port city of Rijeka. The 21-km stretch between Ostrovica and Delnice will reduce travel time between Delnice and Rijeka by half an hour. Its construction lasted six years and cost USD 146 million or USD 7 million per kilometre. President Tudjman said that this was a "great success" and "proof that at the height of aggression against our country the democratic Croatian government took into account the strategic interests of the Croatian people." Congratulating the workers on a well-done job, Tudjman stressed that the future Zagreb-Rijeka highway would be of exceptional strategic importance to the Croatian economy. The opening ceremony at Lepenica was also addressed by the Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transport and Communications, Zeljko Luzavec, who said that 80 km of modern highways would be opened until the end of this year and in 1997. "With the construction of the Rijeka-Zagreb highway, along with an extension to Gorican (a northwestern town on the border with Hungary), we will provide the Croatian economy with access to a market with about 40 million people, so that this road represents our strategic positioning in Europe," Luzavec said. Five tunnels were built along the Ostrovica-Delnice section, the longest one being that at Tuhobic, measuring 2,138 metres. Also built were three viaducts, of which the longest one is Golubinjak, measuring 579 metres. (hina) vm 301504 MET nov 96