A 2000 kilometer stretch of a biking highway is to be built, running through the eastern regions of Poland.

Slawek Szefs reports      

This will be the first such grand scale road project for bikers in the country. Fifty million euros have been earmarked for the purpose in the Operations Program of Eastern Poland. The biking highway is to link five regions in the eastern belt.                   

Marcin Myszkowski, one of the leaders of the 'Masa Krytyczna' action - a Polish equivalent of the Critical Mass Riders initiated in San Francisco back in 1992 - says this is news cyclists in Poland have long been waiting for: 'We do not have good bicycle routes in Poland. I hope this will be the first very good bike route for tourists. The result is the most important. Not just to build it, but to build it very well.'

The first 250 kilometer stretch of the biking highway is to be built in the Swietokrzyskie region. Construction works are to commence in Sandomierz, in spring 2009. 

Jacek Kowalczyk from the Regional Governor's Office in Kielce is happy with the decision, but voices certain doubts concerning the giant scope of the project with regard to local needs: 'Personally, I'm an advocate of building shorter routes in more attractive locations. But the European Commission gave the green light to a larger project and we have an obligation to construct an umpteen hundred kilometer stretch which will comprise one entity. Given present needs, spending money on a bicycle highway may seem a kinky idea. But if we don't do it now, another chance for financing such a route may be long in coming.'

Marcin Myszkowski of Masa Krytyczna remains positively inclined to the bicycle mega project.

'We do not have one national bike policy coordinator of these local routes. So this is the first initiative to connect different regions, which is a very new thing in Poland. It's hard to say how this will work because we don't have any practice with such long routes. But I'm optimistic and I hope it will be a very good route and it will be the start of long distance routes for bikes in Poland,' said Myszkowski.