MOSCOW. Jan 4 (Interfax-AVN) - An automobile detachment of the Russian national humanitarian quick-response corps has been deployed in Tajikistan, Deputy Emergencies Minister Yuri Brazhnikov told Interfax-Military News Agency on Friday.
Two trains carrying 37 KamAZ cargo trucks, two refuellers, a technical servicing vehicle and two Niva convoy jeeps fitted with a special communication system arrived in Dushanbe from Noginsk, Moscow region. The detachment is deployed on the territory of the Dushanbe automobile transport enterprise. Its technical servicing is handled by specialists of the 179th rescue center of the Emergencies Ministry.
According to Brazhnikov, the detachment's main mission is to deliver Russian humanitarian cargo from Tajikistan to Afghanistan. The cargo is transported from Russia to Dushanbe by railway. Some 26,000 tonnes of such cargo have amassed at storehouses of the Tajik Emergencies Ministry.
Russian humanitarian motorcades will use the shortest route to Kabul after the tunnel under the Salang pass is partially restored, Brazhnikov said. The current stage of the restoration work is to be over on January 20.
According to the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Russia has spent some USD19.83m on provision of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan.