The new Polish government has confirmed the construction between Warsaw and Lodz of the CPK – “Central Communication Hub” – a new airport intended to serve as a hub, integrating air, rail and road transport; while no final decision has yet been made on the construction of a factory for the production of a national electric car, the Izera. Both projects were conceived by the previous government.
According to the original plan, the CPK was to be developed in Baranow on about 3,000 hectares and be the starting point for 10 railway corridors that were to develop radially from the hub. The planned cost was around 160 billion Polish zlotys (37 billion euros). Again according to the initial plan, the airport was to receive 40 million passengers per year in the first phase of its operations, scheduled for 2028. The review process carried out by the new government concluded that the forecasts on the opening date and passenger traffic were optimistic, and it was also found that some railway works worth PLN 500 million (around EUR 125 million) had been started without careful analysis. At the beginning of May, however, the government announced the reconfirmation of the CPK subject to a remodelling of the project. Among the proposed changes to the railway part, the most notable is the cancellation of the planned converging spoke structure to the airport, with the exception of direct connections to Wroclaw and Poznan, and the preference for a new Warsaw-Lodz line, as part of a general project to strengthen and expand the country’s railway network.
The project for a Polish electric car envisaged it to be built by the public company ElectroMobility Poland (EMP), which had signed an agreement with the Chinese group Geely Holding to supply a modular platform. Many Italian automotive companies in Poland, interested in diversifying their customer portfolio, also set their sights on the project, and in 2023 the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland (CCIIP) signed a strategic partnership with Izera, being entrusted to identify potential Italian suppliers. However, apart from the presentation of some prototypes and the clearing of the forest where the factory is planned to be built, not much has been done so far. The government is currently conducting an audit and shall soon decide whether or not to support the project with European Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP) funds.
While the decision to withdraw government support for Izera could spell the end of the project, the scale of the CPK project – which envisages the construction of significant rail and motorway infrastructure and will entail the supply of large volumes of equipment and goods – could provide interesting opportunities for Italian companies in the sectors involved – even net of the possible changes to the overall project and the contracts already awarded.