2019-04-29 20:51 update: 2019-05-02, 15:57
Photo: PAP/Grzegorz Michałowski
The planned Central Transportation Port (CPK) can evolve into the economic and communication heart of Poland, PM Mateusz Morawiecki said on Monday in Łódź, central Poland.
The port, planned between Warsaw and Łodź, is to combine air, road and rail connections in a central hub for the entire country. On Monday the government approved a list of priority railway lines to be serviced by the port.
Morawiecki called the CPK project "epochal", and stressed that it gave Poland unique development openings.
"Today, after several years of surveying, we are beginning to carry through some very concrete projects. (...) One centre, one hub - A Central Transportation Port (...) with ten "spokes", or rail arteries spanning out from the port," Morawiecki said.
According to Morawiecki the port could make Poland a European commercial and transportation hub and help it evolve to 21st-century standards.
"I firmly believe that in a few years (...) the Central Transportation Port can become Poland's commercial and communication heart," Morawiecki stressed, adding that this role was also enhanced by the project's central sitting.
Describing the CPK plans, Morawiecki said the port was planned as "a modern window to the world," and observed that rapid economic growth was impossible without such transportation hubs.
He added that the CPK project inscribed itself well in the Polish-Croatian Three Seas Initiative, a cooperation forum of 12 EU states located on the Adriatic, Baltic and Black Seas.
Mikołaj Wild, the government commissioner for the CPK undertaking, said the project involved the construction of 1,600 kilometres of new railway lines, including 670 kilometres of high-speech routes, along which trains will be able to travel at speeds of over 250 km/h. He added that the Central Transportation Port will be the hub for ten new railway lines linking the port with all parts of the country.
The Central Transportation Port CPK is to be built about 45 kilometres south of Warsaw, along the east-west A2 motorway and fairly close to the central city of Łódź. A major railway line linking Warsaw and Łódź is also located nearby. The port is to be built over the next eight years, with work continuing until the end of 2027. At 3,000 hectares, the new port will be much larger than Chopin Airport (635 hectares), making the CPK one of Europe's biggest air hubs. Besides international air links, it will also offer high-speed rail connections.
When launched, the hub is to handle up to 45 million passengers a year, and after expansion up to 100 million. Together with the accompanying road and rail infrastructure, the facility is to cost PLN 30 bln to PLN 35 bln (EUR 7.08 bln to EUR 8.25 bln). (PAP)
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