SARAJEVO: Ten companies and consortia have made bids to build part of a 297 million euro ($332.9 million) Croatian rail project that will connect one of the country's Adriatic ports with the Hungarian border, Croatian Railways said on Monday.

The project expands a 42.6-km long rail line connecting two towns in the north of Croatia - Krizevci and Koprivnica - with the Hungarian border and is part of bigger plan to modernise the rail line shipping cargo from the so-called Mediterranean corridor to central Europe via the port of Rijeka.

"This is a strategic project of public interest ... and so far the largest infrastructure railway project in the recent history of the Republic of Croatia," the Croatian Railways Infrastructure company said in a statement.

The European Union is financing 85% of the total cost of the project, the state-owned company said.

A consortium of China Tiesiju Civil Engineering Group and China Railway Electrification Engineering Group as well as a consortium led by China's Sinohydro Corp. have bid for the project.

Turkey's Cengiz Insaat Sanayi ve Ticaret, a consortium of Turkey's Yapi Merkezi Insaat and Slovenia's Kolektor Koling have also filed bids, as well as a consortium led by Austria's Strabag STRV.VI , the company said on its website.

Other bidders include a consortium of Spain's Comsa and Italy's Generale Costruzioni Ferroviarie; SA de Obras y Servicios, COPASA; a consortium of Italy's Rizzani de Eccher S.p.A. and Slovenia's SZ-Zeleznisko gradbeno podjetje Ljubljana.

Greece's Avax S.A. has filed a bid as well as a consortium of Croatian Div Grupa, Bosnian Integral Inzenjering and Slovakian TSS Grade, the company said.

There is already a 197 million euro project underway on another section of the Mediterranean corridor, while a tender for a third section, estimated to worth 315 million euros, will be published by the end of the year, the company said. ($1 = 0.8921 euros)

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Jane Merriman) ((daria.sito-sucic@thomsonreuters.com; +38733 295 484; Reuters Messaging: daria.sito-sucic.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))