TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT OF STRATEGIC INTEREST FOR CRO

FOR CRO $ ATIA - LUZAVEC ZAGREB, Feb 17 (Hina) - The development of transport infrastructure and the connection of Croatia with transport routes of middle and western Europe was of strategic interest to Croatia, Croatian Minister of Transport, Communications and Maritime Affairs Zeljko Luzavec told a press conference in Zagreb on Monday. 40 kilometres of motorway, on the sections Delnice-Rijeka and Krapina-Zagreb, were built last year, Luzavec said, adding that 40 more kilometres would be built on the section Zagreb- Gorican by the beginning of this year's tourist season. A dozen local roads on the islands were also built, which proved that 1996 was a watershed year in the building of Croatia's transport infrastructure, Luzavec stressed. Speaking of Corridor number five, Trieste-Ljubljana- Budapest-Kiev, whose route Croatia did not sign, Luzavec said that at the G-24 conference, to be held in Helsinki in June, Croatia would advocate that the section Trieste-Rijeka-Zagreb- Gorican be included in the Corridor. This section, Luzavec pointed out, was very important for Croatia, since all west European routes met in the Italian port of Trieste, only 35 kilometres distant from Croatia's Rijeka. Speaking of the Croatian Railways, Luzavec stressed that they represented one of the biggest problems of the Croatian economy. A programme for their restructuring had been forwarded to the Parliament, he said, pointing out that war damages on the railways amounted to USD 350 million. Luzavec also mentioned that last year USD 30 million had been spent on the reconstruction of the flight control system on Croatia's airports. A central radar, one of the most modern systems in the world, was also bought. This year's plans include the reconstruction of shipping company Jadrolinija's fleet, with five modern new ships to be bought, Luzavec said. Speaking of the development of telecommunications, the minister said that the Government allowed HPT, the Croatian Postal Service, to incur a 90 million German marks debt, to be spent on the expansion of the digital and analog network, which, Luzavec concluded, would provide better postal services during the tourist season. (hina) ha mm 171441 MET feb 97