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Solemn opening of traffic on electrified piece of line of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad from the station of Medvezhiegorsk to the station of Svir will pass in Petrozavodsk on December 9. Thus, the entire northern course of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad will be switched to electric traction.
On November 24 the Prime Minister of Karelia Pavel Chernov has held the last large meeting devoted to problems of the railway electrification. Representatives of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad, contractors, members of the Government of the republic and heads of supervising bodies have taken part in the meeting.
Petrozavodsk department of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad Chief Andrey Kuzmenkov has told that at present power and railwaymen are busy testing new equipment. Traction substations in Petrozavodsk and at the station of Nigozero already work, and by November 28 tension will be applied on all spans and stations of the electrified piece of line. This very day the electric train will make the first test run from Medvezhiegorsk to Svir.
Electrification of the piece of line Medvezhiegorsk - Petrozavodsk - Svir which general extent makes 270 kms. has begun in 2002 and is carried out within the framework of investment activity of Russian Railways, Inc. For today the volume of the capital investments appropriated for realization of the project has made 15 billion roubles.
According to the Ministry of Economic Development of Karelia, electrification will allow in to increase throughput of Karelian piece of line of the Oktyabrskaya Railroad a few times, that finally will lead to growth of tax deductions in the budget of Karelia. Due to switch from diesel to electric traction ecological conditions will improve also.
During the meeting Andrey Kuzmenkov has noted that at implementation of such large projects unexpected problems occur inevitably. In this case an opportunity of occurrence of interferences from the new equipment in work of the city telephone system and radio receiving stations at the moment of applying the electric power was a problem. To avoid such interferences within the next few days telecommunications workers will provide additional protection of city communications in the streets of Petrozavodsk located along the railroad tracks.
Ivan Stepanov
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