The motorways will be leased if the tender conditions are met, Minister of Maritime Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure Sinisa Hajdas Doncic said in Sisak on Wednesday, stressing that the motorways would always be owned by Croatia regardless of who may manage them.
"We will lease the motorways, if the conditions of the tender are met. Croatia will keep control over the management of the motorways. At the same time if we manage to get a strong concessionaire, that will facilitate new investments in road transport. In an effort to reduce the public debt we have no other solution", Hajdas Doncic said responding to a question by reporters about an initiative to collect signatures to call for a referendum to oppose the planned leasing of the country's motorways.
"The motorways will permanently remain the property of Croatia regardless of who manages them," the minister repeated while attending a ceremony launching a project aimed at improving the navigability of the Sava river.
Unions in the transport sector consider that the monetisation of the motorways was in fact a way to sell off the country's motorway operators HAC and ARZ as a short term bridging over of public debts and have announced that they will collect signatures for a referendum over the planned lease of the motorways.
The total debt for the motorways amounts to HRK 30 billion, and HRK 6.6 billion is due next year. Unionists propose that the debt be financed through the sale of sections of the motorways to citizens or to reschedule the debt with long-term loans.
