OREANDA-NEWS. On 12 February 2008  was announced, that a station of the emergency and control gas service of OJSC Sibirgazservis (a unit of GAZEKS Holding Company) commissioned in Novosibirsk in February, 2008. Its coverage area includes the whole of the left bank and the adjacent gasified settlements of the Novosibirsk District. The need for this station is explained by traffic jams that make it increasingly difficult for gas service emergency vehicles to reach accident sites in due time. According to the existing standards, gas service personnel are allowed 40 minutes counted from receipt of the 04 telephone call to get to the site.

"Until recently, Novosibirsk emergency service personnel were able to arrive within 15 or 20 minutes", notes OJSC Sibirgazservis Chief Engineer Andrei Lyutikov. "But when an emergency vehicle arrives to the site within 35 or 40 minutes, this is alarming. This is why we have taken a decision to set up an additional station on the left bank".
In 2007, emergency teams made 2,068 on-site visits, including 939 visits in the event of accidents. The majority of the emergency calls (582) were related to in-house gas networks, gas stoves and boilers (50 calls more than in 2006). The company explains this increase in the number of calls by refusal of many gas consumers to service their gas appliances.