Ukrzaliznytsia plans to send UAH 294 mln to repair, modernize energy facilities in 2014

The State Railway Administration of Ukraine (Ukrzaliznytsia) plans to send UAH 180 million to modernize its energy facilities in 2014, UAH 114 million for their repair, the head of the chief department for electrification and power supply at Ukrzaliznytsia Vitaliy Maksymchuk told reporters on Tuesday, December 24.

"We plan to invest funds in the modernization and repair of certain facilities proportionally, depending on their state. We selected sections which will be modernized at each railways, these are mainly repair of the overhead system," he said.

Maksymchuk said that in 2014, Ukrzaliznytsia wants to start electrifying the Dolynska-Mykolaiv section of Odesa railways towards seaports of Mykolaiv region and later the Mykolaiv-Kolosivka section will be electrified.

"This will make the access for freight and passenger trains easier. By the end of next year we hope to cut the ribbon in Mykolaiv," he said.

Maksymchuk also said that blueprints on the electrification of the Volnovakha-Komysh-Zoria-Zaporizhia are being drawn up, and in 2014 the drawing up of a project on the electrification of the state border-Ovruch-Korosten-Zhytomyr-Berdychiv section will be start to join Belarus with seaports of Odesa region.

He said that the approximate cost of the electrification of the Dolynska-Mykolaiv-Kolosivka section will be around UAH 2 billion, that for the Volnovakha-Komysh-Zoria-Zaporizhia section – UAH 2.7-2.8 billion. The cost of the electrification of the third section has not yet been calculated.

In addition, he said that in January-November 2013 Ukrzaliznytsia sent UAH 256 million to modernize its energy facilities and UAH 118 million to repair them.

"In 2012, a program in which we foresaw all volumes of modernization was approved in 2012. The volumes planned for all railways are almost fulfilled," he said.

In 2013, the movement of rapid trains on the Dnipropetrovsk-Simferopol section was opened by Prydniprovska railways.

"We repair the overhead system on the Mykytivka-Horlivka section of Donetsk railways, although there are no rapid trains there, but the section has rather intensive movement. We focused on mountain sections of Lviv railways, as they have not been modernized for a long period of time," Maksymchuk said.

In addition, this year, large work was carried out at the Korystivka-Znamyanka section of Odesa railways.

"In 2013, we replaced 150-160 kilometers of deteriorated overhead wire, 97 kilometers of deteriorated span wire, 2,500 pillars of the overhead system and around 16,000-17,000 insulators," Maksymchuk said.