The Croatian government has approved financing worth €160.5m for the country’s new nationwide electronic motorway tolling system.

Eligible expenditure of €115.6m will be financed through Croatia’s Recovery and Resilience Plan, while motorway operator Hrvatske autoceste will meet the remaining €44.9m of costs. The system will cover motorways operated by Hrvatske autoceste and the concessionaires Autocesta Zagreb–Macelj and BINA Istra, creating a unified national tolling network.

Croatia’s Toll Collection Act requires the new system to begin operating on 1 March 2027. It will retain distance- and vehicle-category-based charging but remove the need for vehicles to stop at conventional toll booths. The free-flow system will combine dedicated short-range communication technology with automatic number-plate recognition.

Electronic ENC devices will be compulsory for heavy vehicles, while light vehicles will be able to use either an ENC device or plate-based payment. Installation is already underway. Crolibertas said that 53 of the planned 212 roadside gantries had been erected by 3 June on sections of the A3, A4, A5 and A11 motorways.

The completed system will cover approximately 1,300km of motorway. It will also include mobile enforcement units, fast-registration lanes, communications and power infrastructure, customer web and mobile applications and a central monitoring system. Hrvatske autoceste awarded the implementation contract to a consortium comprising Slovakia’s SkyToll and the Czech Republic’s TollNet in September 2024.