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Construction of WMC Biljane Donje in progress

25.11.2022.

On Friday, the director of the Fund, Luka Balen, and his deputy, Mirko Budiša, visited the construction site of the Waste Management Centre Biljane Donje. The project is worth more than 500 million kunas, of which 371 million have been withdrawn from the European Cohesion Fund. The remaining amount is financed by the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund, the company Eko d.o.o., towns Zadar and Benkovac, and Zadar County.

Luka Balen, the director of EPEEF pointed out that this was an important project that would complete the waste management system in this part of Croatia. 
“Waste is a valuable resource and anything that can be collected separately and recovered should be sorted and further used respecting the principles of the circular economy. However, the fraction which cannot be used remains, and it must be disposed of at the centres according to the highest standards, such as this one in Biljane will be,” said Balen, pointing out the importance of building the centre and starting the trial operation according to the planned works schedule.

Dino Perović, the managing director of the company Eko, presented all the phases of the project, starting from 2006 when the Zadar County Waste Management Plan was adopted, the company Eko d.o.o. was established, and the conceptual design of WMC was prepared, as well as the EIA. The final Decision on integrated environmental conditions was adopted in 2014, the most economically advantageous contractor was chosen in 2018, and in 2019 the design and works agreement was signed with the Slovenian company RIKO d.o.o. “The works are almost finalised and next year the Centre will start with trial operation. The final deadline for using European financial resources to finance this project is the end of the next year, on 31 December 2023 to be exact, and we’re hopeful that we will have finished all works on the centre until then,” said Perović.

The WMC construction project manager, Uroš Lavrenčič, also participated in the meeting with the leadership of the Fund. He explained that the project was very challenging and complex, and that works were in progress under all 13 building consents issued for the project. Lavrenčič also mentioned the deadlines which, he said, the contractor would fully meet.