12 thousand PLN per meter? Compensation for apartments near the tunnel in Łódź

Preliminary estimates indicate that approximately PLN 12,000 will be offered per square meter of apartment purchased from people affected by the railway investment in Łódź. PLN – announced Senator Krzysztof Kwiatkowski during Tuesday's meeting of the parliamentary infrastructure committee.

On Tuesday, the senator presented the Senate bill amending the railway transport act. It concerns those injured during the construction of the cross-town tunnel in Łódź, which was suspended in September 2024 after part of a tenement house collapsed above the drilling shield.

According to the preliminary calculations we have, it is even said that this formula for assuming the replacement value, without reducing the degree of wear and tear of the property, may even give a value of approximately PLN 12,000. PLN from the metro. I believe that this is already a proposal that is, to a large extent, extremely interesting from the residents' point of view, said the senator.

As Kwiatkowski emphasized, the project is a response to the problems that occurred during the implementation of the tunnel investment in a highly urbanized part of Łódź. As a result of unforeseen ground anomalies, tunnel drilling was suspended, one of the tenement houses collapsed, and subsequent buildings suffered cracks and subsidence, which forced many residents to leave their premises.

The project is intended to complement the applicable regulations which, as Kwiatkowski pointed out, do not provide sufficient protection for people actually affected by the effects of location decisionsincluding tenants who are not property owners. The new regulations are intended to directly enable financing by the investor, i.e. PKP PLK, among others. costs of renting alternative premises and compensation payments determined by the voivode.

An important element of the project is also the introduction of the possibility of changing the decision on determining the location of the railway line in emergency situations that could not be predicted at the stage of issuing it. This is – according to the senator – to create real legal tools to complete the investment, while securing the interests of residents.

Kwiatkowski emphasized that the use of replacement value without taking into account the wear and tear of buildings is particularly important in Łódźwhere many apartments are located in historic tenement houses and the tenants have incurred significant expenditure on their modernization. The project is compensatory in nature and – as the senator explained – is intended to both repair the effects of previous events and create solutions that can be used for further tunnel investments in the future.

Senator Kwiatkowski's position was supported by Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Piotr Malepszak, who was present during the committee meeting.

According to data from the National Bank of Poland, the average transaction price per square meter of an apartment in Łódź on the primary market in the third quarter of this year was PLN 9,000. PLN 837, and on the secondary market PLN 8,000. PLN 112.

MEPs proposed several amendments to the bill, including: of a clarifying nature regarding compensation paid by the investor and referred it to the second reading in the Sejm.

The construction of the cross-town tunnel in Łódź was suspended in September 2024 after part of a tenement house collapsed above the drilling shield. Since then, approximately 250 tenants from several tenement houses in the shield's impact area have been living in hotels and rented apartments.

The draft act amending the Railway Transport Act focuses on improving the implementation of large infrastructure investments and protecting social interests. The proposed changes are aimed primarily at facilitating the continuation of railway investments in the event of unforeseen difficulties, enabling the voivode to change the decision on the location of the railway line.

Additionally, the project introduces mechanisms to protect tenants of apartments affected by investments who are not owners – it obliges to ensure financing of the lease of replacement premises by investors such as PKP PLK or CPK.

The document also provides for the possibility of temporary use of movable property or property rights of third parties in crisis situations, for example in the event of force majeure related to the construction of a tunnel. It was also proposed to extend the validity period of environmental decisions for railway investments, especially tunnels, to twenty years. (PAP)

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