YAKUTSK, December 7. /TASS/. The creation of a single off-road vehicles (ORVs) company in Yakutia's Arctic zone may unite the disparate fleets of vehicles used to deliver goods and food to the region's remote settlements, said experts interviewed by TASS.

Communication with more than 100 settlements in Yakutia's Arctic zone is by winter temporary roads laid over rolled snow, over ice of rivers and lakes. Cargo is delivered along them, including by off-road vehicles. In other seasons cargoes are shipped there by air.

"Yakutia's Arctic regions have disparate fleets of off-road vehicles. This complicates their maintenance and repair, thus the region needs a single off-road vehicles company. Presently, we have new types of vehicles that did not exist in Soviet times. By using such vehicles, we will cut by 2 - 2.5 times the costs of goods for the people living in remote settlements," said Nikolay Nakhodkin, leader of the Russian Union of Rescuers' Yakutsk Branch.

In his opinion, the new company's fleet may base on Burlak off-road vehicles, tested in Yakutia in the winter and summer seasons. "Yakutia's Ministry of Transport and Road has supported our tests. After the positive results, we have been working on creating such a company. It will ensure the maintenance and repair of the fleet, will offer driver training," he continued.

Burlak's load capacity is up to 3 tons of cargo by land and 2 tons with water crossings. The Emergency Situations Ministry has been using the off-road vessels. "At temperatures below minus 50 degrees, the Burlaks covered 3,000 kilometers from Yakutsk to [Arctic settlements] Sakkyryr, Verkhoyansk, Batagai, along off-road routes to the Verkhoyansk Mountains," he said.

Following results of the summer tests, the off-road vehicles underwent certain adjustments for comfortable operation in hot conditions. "The operation of a couple Burlaks in that area actually will mean year-round deliveries to the village of Olenek without road repairs or construction. There are many similar routes in the region, and not only in the Arctic," the expert noted.

Adapting vehicles to region

The Burlak plant's expeditions have shown the vehicles may be used in Yakutia's conditions, said Alexander Kugaevsky, Deputy President of the Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University.

"The problem is that the [federal] law on the Northern Supplies defines quite clearly the marine part [of cargo deliveries], but the mechanism for cargo deliveries by [land] is expressed insufficiently. This is the most complicated part. There, first of all, we need off-road vehicles. We have been facing problems with winter roads. There are very few large industrial settlements, to which industrial companies and state road enterprises used to lay winter roads," he said.

The expert pointed to a necessary state program to develop off-road vehicles. "They include Burlaks, and other off-road vehicles of higher load capacity and different cross-country abilities. I would invite young guys and have them develop not only the technical aspect, but also the economic and management aspects. It would be positive to create a special enterprise with a strong technical development, communication and management services. At the same time, focus should be on the equipment like Burlak off-road vehicles with low-pressure tires that ensure environmental friendliness and increased cross-country abilities," he added.

The country eyed using off-road vehicles in the 1970s and 1980s, but in the "perestroika" the interest to Northern Supplies clearly faded away. However, it is reviving now, the expert said.

About Burlak off-road vehicles

Burlak off-road vehicles of various modifications, produced in Kurgan, have been operating in the Chukotka, Khanty-Mansi, Yamalo-Nenets, Komi, Yakutia, Krasnoyarsk, Trans-Baikal, Sverdlovsk and Magadan regions, as well as in the Antarctica. The ORVs have passed tests by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, paramilitary structures, and big resource extraction companies.