Case of Poland's transportation hub CPK's Zablotnia plot impacts hub's cost, not timeline
The issue of the plot of land in Zablotnia only affects the costs of the CPK high-speed railway construction project and the infrastructure accompanying the construction of the CPK airport terminal both part of Poland's central transportation hub CPK, and not the project schedule, according to Poland's Infrastructure Minister Dariusz Klimczak.
"The problem is that one of the plots, a key one with an area of 160 hectares, was sold, even though the previous CPK authorities informed KOWR that it was necessary for the construction. Today, both the new CPK authorities and the new KOWR authorities are trying to recover it, which is not easy," Klimczak told reporters following a conference.
As he explained, the planned acquisition of this plot from the National Support Centre for Agriculture (KOWR) by CPK free of charge significantly reduced the costs of the entire project, whose total cost is estimated at over PLN 130 billion (EUR 30.6 bln), including nearly PLN 77 billion (EUR 18.1 bln) for high-speed rail.
When asked whether if the issue of the plot in Zablotnia cannot be resolved quickly, the submission of an application for a building permit for CPK this year is in question, he replied that the application will be submitted regardless of this issue.
"According to the information recently provided to me by the CPK representative, none of these procedures is at risk – the issue of this unfortunate plot of land only affects the costs of this project in terms of both the construction of high-speed rail and the infrastructure accompanying the construction of the airport terminal," said Klimczak.
He explained that, as part of the management of the Ministry of Infrastructure, the CPK representative provides him with information on the progress of land purchases, the announcement of tenders and the obtaining of the necessary building permits.
The head of the Ministry of Infrastructure announced that there are two ways of acquiring land for the first section of the Lodz-Warsaw high-speed railway, which is to be completed by 2032.
"The first is a voluntary railway acquisition programme, created by the current government, which covers developed properties (...). To date, over 140 hectares have been purchased and notarised under this programme," said Klimczak.
"The rest, an even larger amount of land, will be purchased through railway ZRID expropriation, which is a completely different procedure that applies to undeveloped land, and this type of procedure will be faster there," he added.
This involves expropriation for the benefit of SP on the basis of a decision to grant a permit for the implementation of a railway investment. The owner of an undeveloped plot of land is then entitled to so-called fair compensation.
As Klimczak pointed out, this procedure can be initiated once the CPK location decision becomes final.
The head of the KOWR, Henryk Smolarz, announced on Wednesday that he had asked the current owner of the plot in Zablotnia for consent to repurchase the land.
Agriculture Minister Stefan Krajewski announced that he had decided to conduct an internal audit of all activities related to the sale of the plot.
The case concerns the sale of a 160-hectare plot of land through which a high-speed railway line from Warsaw to the CPK airport is to run.
At the end of October, Wirtualna Polska wrote that in 2023, shortly before the former ruling party handed over power, the Ministry of Agriculture granted permission for the sale of a plot of land belonging to the KOWR to Piotr Wielgomas, deputy chairman of the private company Dawtona.
jz/ han/ nl/