Ljubljana - The two-member board of 2TDK featuring Dušan Zorko as director general and Marko Brezigar resigned today in agreement with the company's supervisory board, which appointed Pavle Hevka and Iztok Černoša in their place. The pair will take over for a four-year term tomorrow.

Zorko's replacement as the boss of the state-owned company managing the construction of a new 27-km rail line between Koper and Divača had been speculated about for a while.

According to Necenzurirano webportal, Zorko and Brezigar had to resign for delays in the EUR 1.2 billion project, for which the management is said to be responsible.

Zorko and the supervisors had agreed before today's session he would resign, or else he would be dismissed.

He was appointed 2TDK boss to succeed Žarko Sajić in January 2019, becoming the third director general at the company, set up by the government in 2016 to run Slovenia's largest infrastructure project.

Right now, a procedure to select the contractors for the main works on the project is under way, which is not going smoothly.

In early September, the National Review Commission annulled 2TDK's decision to accept construction references of six bidders, including three Chinese ones, whereupon 2TDK asked the bidders to provide additional references.

But under the Zorko-led management, 2TDK has also taken several key steps in the project.

Just last month the European Commission allocated EUR 80 million in cohesion funds for the project, which both Zorko and Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec hailed as an important stage victory which they also attributed to the good cooperation between 2TDK and the ministry.

Hevka is coming to 2TDK from the state-owned consulting and engineering company DRI, where he has been in charge of road maintenance. He is also the chief supervisor of national motorway company DARS.

A civil engineer with a master's degree in economics and business, he has 34 years of experience, including in managing the most demanding infrastructure projects, 2TDK said in a release. Apart from his professional career, he is also the president of the Slovenian Tourist Association.

Černoša is also a graduate of civil engineering with years of experience in managing investments and infrastructure projects as well as cohesion projects. He was a member of the 2TDK supervisory board, from which he resigned before today's appointment.