A mine from the times of the Great Patriotic War, found during the exercises of power engineers, was disarmed in the Tver region

In Zubtsovsky district of the Tver region, during the exercises of subsidiaries and affiliates of PJSC Rosseti, power engineers from the branch “Kalugaenergo” of IDGC of Centre and Volga Region found a shell from the times of the Great Patriotic War.

“During the clearing of the ROWs between the trees, I saw something metallic glinting in the sun. Coming a little closer, I realized that this is a mortar mine, its diametre is about 5 centimetres, and German letters are clearly visible on it. Realizing how serious our find is, we immediately stopped working, moved to a safe distance and called dispatchers, who, in turn, passed the information to the appropriate structures,” said Nikolay Rodin, a senior master of the power line service in the Kaluga branch of IDGC of Centre and Volga Region.

The shell found by the power engineers was literally buried in the tree trunk. In order not to disrupt the deadlines for work, the bomb technicians from the emergency service of the city of Tver promptly arrived at the place. They safely removed the mortar mine from the tree and on the same day destroyed it at the landfill.

During the Great Patriotic War in the Tver region there were fierce battles. The loss of the Soviet troops in them amounted to more than two million people. Today, unexploded mines and shells still lurk on the territory of the Rzhev-Vyazma battle. That is why the power engineers working in these places strictly observe safety rules and regularly receive briefings, during which they are reminded of the need to be careful and cautious when carrying out work.

Please, be reminded that the joint exercises of power engineers of PJSC Rosseti, the regional division of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and contracting organizations to work out the principles of interaction during the period of eliminating mass outages of power grid facilities started in the Tver Region on 22 September. They are attended by power engineers from 20 regions of operation of IDGC of Centre and IDGC of Centre and Volga Region. The purpose of the exercises is to reduce the failure rate in power grids of the Tver region by 30%, a two-fold reduction in the time of power supply restoration in case of technological violations. To this end, in particular, it is planned to clear 10,777 hectares of ROWs from tree and shrub vegetation, replace more than 9,000 power line poles, and also replace 540 km of bare wire with self-supporting insulated one. The exercises will end on 22 December.