2024-07-01 21:39 update: 2024-07-02, 21:34
Photo PAP/Piotr Nowak
Andrzej Duda, the Polish president, has said that blocking the development of the Central Transportation Hub (CPK) constitutes an act of "high treason."
During a meeting of the Strategic Development Projects Board on Monday, Duda said that, in his view, the policy that has been conducted in recent months by the current coalition government raises doubts as to whether the big investments will continue and whether the CPK will be built as a central hub or just another regional airport.
"Yes, (the CPK - PAP) will be competition for Berlin or Budapest and Vienna if big hubs are built there too. But we are ready to compete on this market," he said.
"Let no one in Poland dare, in order to make life easier for others, in order to provide someone else with greater profits, to block investments that we should be making in Poland because this actually qualifies as high treason," he added.
In addition, according to Duda, data on air transport development indicate that Poland will need more large airports and transport centres in the future.
"Such communication ports as the CPK - in my opinion - there can be more than one of them in Poland. Air transport will develop dynamically. All those who said that there will be a problem with regional airports in connection with the CPK are wrong. They will all have tasks to perform. We can expect that more local airports serving private aviation will be needed. There is no doubt that this industry in Poland needs more investment."
He added: "We need a large airport operating on a global scale, where planes can arrive and depart to the farthest corners of the world."
In his opinion, the CPK is also a strategic facility that can be used to receive deliveries of arms and to relocate troops, as well as a place where large quantities of equipment can be accumulated.
The CPK was the Law and Justice (PiS) government's multi-billion-zloty flagship project to build a massive transport hub located between Warsaw and the central city of Lodz that would encompass a brand-new airport with rail and road links.
Last year, NIK, the country's state audit office, warned that the project lacked full business justification, thus, the new government decided that the entire project would be examined "in a transparent way" by experts. (PAP)
mj/jch
