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Kaliningrad authorities take urgent measures to remove freight jamming on RF-Lithuania border

The problem at the border-crossing station arose over the fact that only 13 trains are passing through the railway border checkpoint instead of 18 trains

KALININGRAD, February 6 (Itar-Tass) – The authorities of the Kaliningrad Region are taking urgent measures to provide a free and non-stop crossing of the freight wagons, which have piled up at the Nesterov-Kybartai railway border checkpoint on the Russian-Lithuanian border. Over 600 freight wagons for the Kaliningrad consignees have cramped at the border-crossing station, the press service of the regional government told Itar-Tass on Wednesday.

The measures, which should be taken for the settlement of the foresaid problem, were discussed at an extraordinary meeting, which Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Nikolai Tsukanov held. The leadership of the border service, customs service, the Russian Border Service and the Kaliningrad Railway were participating in the meeting.

Commenting on the results of the meeting the governor said in his microblog that “the problem will be settled within three days, and all the cargoes that piled up on the railway will reach their consignees within this deadline.” In his view, “the mechanisms of cooperation between all structures should be adjusted” primarily to rule out similar situations to recur. “Only a systemic and well-organized work of Russian Railways (RZD), customs service and border service will permit to avoid similar problematic situations in the future,” Tsukanov believes.

The problem at the border-crossing station arose over the fact that only 13 trains are passing through the railway border checkpoint instead of 18 trains, which should pass through it daily, the press service of the regional government explained. The regional government noted that a higher number of freight trains bound for Kaliningrad resulted from growing cargo shipments in the region. In 2012 an average of 11 trains passed through the Nesterov-Kybartai railway border checkpoint every day.

“Such instruments should be found to ensure stably for the timely processing of coming cargoes,” Tsukanov said, noting that “this task is becoming particularly topical over an upcoming FIFA World Cup in Russia in 2018, the preparations to which will increase drastically the cargo shipments in the Kaliningrad Region in the years to come.”

The governor instructed the regional government and the agencies concerned to work out long-term regulations, which determine well-coordinated actions for the freight supplies on the railway without any disruption and timely. In particular, the regulations should provide the timely informing of the customs services on the number of coming wagons, the time of their arrival, the amount and the list of the cargoes.

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