MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow will have uninterrupted supplies of heat this week, authorities said Monday, as the region faced temperatures that were forecast to fall to around -30 degrees Celsius.
Special facilities would also be set up in the city, where homeless people would be able to spend the night, eat and receive medical aid, they said.
"Special equipment and mobile heat plants will be used in case of emergency. There is an assistance agreement with the Emergency Situations Ministry, and links are in place to [Russian power monopoly] UES. Everything necessary has been done to keep the city operating as normal during the cold snap," senior municipal services official Pyotr Aksyonov told journalists.
Aksyonov said heat supplies would be restricted only in case of emergency, and that heat would be redirected from commercial to residential consumers in the event of an unforeseen shortage.
Weather forecasters say Moscow will be plunged into temperatures of minus 27 degrees Celsius (-16.6 degrees Fahrenheit) Monday night. The cold spell is expected to last several days, with temperatures dropping as low as minus 34 degrees Celsius by the end of the week.
The sudden freeze comes on the back of several days of relatively mild weather, with temperatures hovering only just below zero degrees Celsius.
UES head Anatoly Chubais earlier said heat supplies to some consumers could be restricted if the weather was too cold, but later added that this would not affect residential buildings.
Moscow regional utility Mosenergo also said in a statement that it had stocked up on fuel and was well equipped to deal with the drop in temperatures.
