MOSCOW, May 7 (AVN) - The Russian Air Force has signed agreement with 19 coal suppliers this year, Lieutenant General Viktor Chechet, head of the Air Force construction, engineering and technical support and quartering, said on Monday.
The supply plan for 2001 makes 520,100t of coal, Chechet told the Military News Agency. As much as 118,000t, which is 22 percent of the year's demand, were shipped in the first quarter of the year.
According to Chechet, the Air Force is allowed to spend no more than RUR284.6m (USD9.8m) for coal purchase this year. The money is enough to make the required stock of coal in case prices for this kind of fuel stabilise at the level of January this year.
Coal supplies were frequently out of time during the previous heating season due to delays in payment to coal producers and bad weather, Chechet stressed. As a result, several Air Force garrison in the Sakhalin Island and other remote localities failed to make any stock and were forced to feed heating systems with the fuel they had just received all the winter.
The plan of seasonal cargo shipping to the Far North and Far East envisages transportation of 9,400t of coal starting from June 1. Fuel delivery in the Far East will be supervised by the housing operation department of the Far Eastern military district and delivery to the Far North by housing operation bodies of the 6th air force and air defence army and the Northern Fleet's sea engineering service. Besides, the Air Force is to deliver of 9,800t by aircraft of the Arkhangelsk and Sortavala housing operation units.
The Air Force has approved purchase of a fuel stock for the Arkhangelsk unit. It will provide for considerable economy of funds earlier transferred to the Arkhangelsk sea port for coal processing and stockpiling, Chechet noted.