ZAGREB, June 29, 2019 – Bikers from Rijeka and Primorje-Gorski Kotar County on Saturday staged a protest against the collection of the road toll on the bridge connecting the mainland with the northern Adriatic island of Krk, slowing down traffic by paying the road toll with small change.
Traffic across the bridge, which is usually dense at this time of the tourist season, was significantly slower on Saturday morning.
Police were regulating traffic, directing bikers to one of the four open road toll collection points.
The protesting bikers said that the purpose of their action was to have road toll collection on the Krk bridge cancelled as the bridge had long been paid for and was the only bridge in the country where the road toll was still collected.
Asked to comment on the protest, Transport Minister Oleg Butković said in Rijeka that the protesters were harming themselves and Croatia but noted that there were grounds to abolish the road toll for the Krk bridge.
“We are conducting talks with the World Bank in that regard. The total debt of the road sector is 5.5 billion euro and we cannot make a decision of that kind without international creditors who helped finance the construction of motorways and refinance the debt,” Butković said, adding that the government would cancel road toll collection for the Krk bridge if such a move was approved by international creditors.
More Krk news can be found in the Lifestyle section.
