Transport Minister Radovan Zerjav presented Wednesday the ministry's achievements in the 2004-2008 term. Zerjav, who was appointed minister in September 2007, said that the ministry focused above all on road transport issues, making it the "ministry of roads".
"I tried changing that, deal more with the railways. Whoever will be the transport minister in the next term should not be the minister of roads, but of railways," he said.
The ministry faced a lot problems regarding expensive and flawed motorway construction, which led to road safety risks and subsequent closures of motorway sections that caused a lot of public uproar.
Zerjav is especially proud of the recent introduction of the vignette tolling system, which he said improved the traffic flow and safety and decreased pollution. The ministry is also working on satellite tolling for lorries, which is to be introduced in 2009.
Meanwhile, the Slovenian Chamber of Craft and Small Business (OZS) warned today that this system should not be introduced too hastily. The chamber said that the cost of the planned satellite tolling system could exceed 20% of collected tolls, while microwave technology would costs 10%.
According to the minister, more than 81 km of motorways were opened for traffic in the last four years and another 82 km will open by the end of 2008.
One of the priorities was also to improve the safety on Slovenia's streets. Zerjav said that during the first six months of 2008, the number of death casualties dropped by 33 compared to the same period last year due to the new road safety act.
The minister stressed the importance of ongoing railway modernisation worth EUR 8.9bn, which is to be completed in 2023. Zerjav said in an interview published by a daily newspaper on Wednesday that the goal was to divert transportation traffic onto the railways.
Another great achievement was the modernisation of the basic infrastructure of the Maribor airport, which cost some EUR 4.3m. Furthermore, the airport is to get an overhauled and bigger passenger terminal in an investment worth some EUR 17m.
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