Ministry of Infrastructure: the challenge of building north-south corridors

One of the challenges for Europe is the construction and development of north-south transport corridors, including the route connecting the Three Seas Initiative (TSI, 3SI) countries, Infrastructure Minister Andrzej Adamczyk said in Katowice on Monday.

The Minister of Infrastructure stressed during one of the panels of the European Economic Congress in Katowice that Poland has the ambition not only to fulfil its obligations within the framework of the development of the European transport networks within TEN-T but also to respond to the challenges arising from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

The Trans-European Transport Network, TEN-T, is an instrument to coordinate and ensure coherence and complementarity of infrastructure investments. The TEN-T includes road, rail, air, sea and river routes, which are the most important connections from the point of view of the European Union’s development, as well as point infrastructure elements in the form of sea, air, inland ports and road-rail terminals. The aim of developing the TEN-T network is to ensure the territorial cohesion of the EU and to facilitate the free movement of people and goods.

The minister stressed that when it comes to the implementation of the TEN-T by 2030, ‘we are well advanced’. The focus should now be on projects which, the Minister said, would have raised a smile just a few years ago. Here he pointed to the construction of Via Carpatia, the so-called ‘Tri-Mountain Route’ linking north and south Europe.

– The challenges opened up by the situation in Ukraine are the Tri-Pacific route, the Via Carpatia route with its branches. It is the need to realise not only Via Carpatia, but Rail Carpatia, in agreement with Romania and Lithuania and the Slovaks – Rail-2-Sea, a very important rail route that will activate north-south transport directions. These are the challenges we face,” said the head of the MI.

Adamczyk noted that Ukraine itself is also changing its communication and transport policy. It wants, he pointed out, to build rail routes with European gauge, and develop road connections with the EU.

– This includes the Trilateral Route, which requires huge financial outlays, the minister pointed out.

Source: PortalMorski.pl