OREANDA-NEWS. November 08, 2011. The two-week rally Blue Corridor’2011 finished in Moscow. CNG KAMAZ vehicles participated in the race.

The caravan consisting of 15 vehicles produced at factories successfully passed a route more than 3.5 thousand km long. It was laid through Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Ufa, Orenburg, Samara, Saratov, Volgograd, Voronezh, Tambov, and Tula. The following KAMAZ vehicles developed jointly with RariTEK, a partner of KAMAZ producing NGVs, demonstrated their reliability properties during the race: a dump truck and a sided truck, a multipurpose vehicle with a crane manipulator on KAMAZ-43114 chassis, a Minipak MK2 garbage truck on KAMAZ-4308 chassis, a vacuum machine, as well as an NGV mobile fueller. Low-entry urban and suburban NEFAZ buses also participated in the rally.

Exhibitions of all NGVs which participated in the rally were organized at each destination point, and also round tables were held with the participation of the heads of the Russian Federation subjects, cities’ administrations, transport companies, environmental organizations, and mass media. They discussed advantages and prospects of the use of natural gas as a motor fuel which is not only more environmentally friendly, but also more efficient in comparison with gasoline. For example, using a CNG KAMAZ truck for 10 years a customer will be able to save 6.1 million rubles only due to a difference between traditional and gas fuels. This is 2.5 times higher than the cost of the vehicle.

After the round table meetings, a lot of documents were signed: MoU between Gazprom and the governments of six regions where the rally was held. According to these documents, the parties will develop and implement programs associated with the transfer of vehicles to natural gas and expand a network of NGV-refueling compressor stations.

The Blue Corridor’2011 rally highlighted current preconditions for the successful transfer of vehicles to natural gas. Gazprom is ready to build NGV-refueling compressor stations, develop a network of gas filling stations across the country and provide them with fuel with the help of a mobile fueller at any point located far away from highways. KAMAZ is constantly updating equipment running on methane, and now it offers its clients a variety of favourable terms of vehicle purchasing. Regional and cities’ authorities plan to organize the transfer of public transport to natural gas and to provide a favorable investment climate and tax preferences for all involved organizations within their remit.