2019-03-27 15:22 update: 2019-03-29, 14:14
Photo: PAP/Radek Pietruszka
The Polish cabinet will in May work on the Multi-Annual Programme for the Central Transportation Port (CPK), a major air hub to be located in central Poland, government commissioner for CPK, Mikołaj Wild, has told PAP.
"Within the next two months, the Council of Ministers will deal with the Multi-Annual Programme for the Central Transportation Port. It is set out in the CPK law. The programme will define investments and expenditures planned for more than the next decade in connection with the construction of the CPK," Mikołaj Wild told PAP.
The commissioner expressed hope that the government will endorse the plan in the first half of 2019.
The programme will include the railway network connecting the CPK and Warsaw. Additionally, it will make CPK investments part of annual state budgets, defining the expenditures that will be automatically included in subsequent budgets.
The programme will also define non-budgetary funding to be provided by private investors, the commissioner added.
The government will need to retain a majority stake in the airport, or at least 51 percent of the shares, according to Wild.
Rail infrastructure will be financed by the state budget and EU money, which can cover up to 85 percent of the investment value, he pointed out.
According to estimates quoted by Wild, the airport component of the CPK will cost about PLN 20 bln (EUR 4.67 bln), roads - PLN 7 bln (EUR 1.63 bln), a new Warsaw-Łódź railway line with a transit station at the airport - PLN 9 bln (EUR 2.10 bln), and the remaining railway infrastructure to be built by 2040 - PLN 40 bln (EUR 9.33 bln). "It means that of this PLN 80 bln (EUR 18.66 bln) that the project will accumulate, PLN 50 bln (EUR 11.66 bln) will be spent on the expansion of the railway network," the commissioner said.
In 2017, Poland decided to build the CPK between the central cities of Warsaw and Łódź, about 45 kilometres from the centre of Warsaw. According to the government, the investment is necessary to avoid an air transport bottleneck that is bound to be caused by the ever rising numbers of flights and passengers in the country.
CPK is to be built about 45 kilometres from the centre of Warsaw, along the east-west A2 motorway and fairly close to the central city of Łódź.
When launched, the hub is to handle up to 45 million passengers a year, and after expansion up to 100 million. Preparatory work is to be completed by the end of 2019, and the port should be operational by the end of 2027. (PAP)
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