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Cars at in Tver Region begin moving to St Petersburg

The column, consisting of trucks, reaches 10 kilometres

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

TVER, December 1 (Itar-Tass) — Cars, which stalled at the M10 highway in the Tver region due to snowfalls, has begun moving to St Petersburg, head of the main regional emergency directorate’s press service Denis Gutsalyuk told Itar-Tass on Saturday.

The column, consisting of trucks, reaches 10 kilometres. According to Gutsalyuk, “It is likely that the situation will stabilise by morning, December 2.”

On December 1, cars have started moving to Moscow, he added.

The official stressed, “This became possible to the joint efforts by officers of the regional emergency directorate, the leadership of the Tver region and municipal entities, different services. At the moment the trucks are moving at the 264th kilometre of the highway.”

In addition, the regional government told Itar-Tass that over 300 units of equipment had cleaned down snowdrifts and chemicalized motor roads.

The work continues to clean down motor roads of administrative and economic significance and school itineraries, the government said.

Traffic on the Rossiya federal road in the Tver Region, where heavy snowfalls caused kilometres-long congestions, is being normalized, the Russian Emergencies Ministry's information department told Itar-Tass.

One-lane traffic to Moscow and reverse traffic in the direction of St. Petersburg is organized on Federal Highway M-10. In the direction of St. Petersburg, drivers are recommended to go Highway M-9 via Rzhev and Pskov, a ministry source said.

According to the ministry, 175 people have been mobilized to deal with the snowfall consequences, and 102 machines are used.

Hot meals for people and fuel for the blocked transport are provided. There are stations where people can warm themselves and receive medical care, the source said.

Additional traffic police groups were sent from Tver to the road. Help is provided for the drivers and passengers, the regional traffic police department told Itar-Tass on Saturday.

Kilometres-long congestions formed in the Torzhok and Vyshny Volochok districts on Friday. Traffic police took measures on Friday night to clear the jams on 40 km from the 238th to the 278th km of the road.

According to acting regional traffic police Chief Alexei Smirnov, the situation was caused first of all by failure to promptly deice the road, the heavy snowfalls and wrong actions of truck drivers who blocked with their vehicles all the width of the road, preventing road machines from coming.

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