DUSHANBE. March 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian border guards in Tajikistan may set aside four MI-8 Hip helicopters to transport from Dushanbe to Afghanistan a large team of medical workers and rescuers of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, which is to arrive in the Tajik capital on Wednesday.
It is planned that the helicopters, with medical workers and rescuers aboard, will fly to the scene of the earthquake in the Afghan province of Baghlan on Thursday, the headquarters of the Russian border guard contingent in Tajikistan has told Interfax.
"It is impossible to do it today, for the IL-76 Candid plane of the Russian Emergency Situations Ministry arrives in Dushanbe airport too late, and border guard helicopters are forbidden to fly at night," a spokesman for the headquarters said.
The humanitarian cargo will be delivered to the scene of the earthquake by automobiles, the spokesman said.
According to him, the Russian ministry's mission in Tajikistan is working on getting an authorization for crossing the Tajik-Afghan border with the Afghan Embassy. It is also trying to obtain authorization for the departure of the helicopters.
The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, in line with a presidential order, is sending a large group of medical personnel and rescuers to Afghanistan in the wake of Tuesday's devastating earthquake.
First Deputy Emergency Situations Minister Yuri Vorobyov has told Interfax that the IL-76 plane will also deliver to Dushanbe a mobile hospital, three tonnes of medicines, blankets, foodstuffs, individual water purification devices and rescue equipment.
In addition, a humanitarian convoy will set out from Dushanbe to Afghanistan's Konduz through the Tajik town of Nizhny Pyandzh.
An Emergency Situations Ministry plane carrying 21 tonnes of humanitarian cargo flew from Moscow to Kabul on Tuesday evening.