An X-ray control system for trains crossing from Belarus into Lithuania has been put into trial operation at the Kena border checkpoint, the Customs Department said on October 4, adding that the project cost 5.6 million euros.
The system operates in automatic mode and can scan trains traveling at speeds of up to 60 kilometres per hour.
“The system has already been tested and is starting to operate,” the department’s spokeswoman Lina Laurinaityte-Grigiene said.
The Customs Office said later that the system was operating in trial mode.
The Warsaw branch of China’s Nuctech won the Customs Department’s procurement procedure for the installation of X-ray equipment, worth around 3.8 million euros, in the summer of 2021.
Autokausta, a Lithuanian construction company, built the necessary infrastructure at the Kena railway station under a contract, worth 1.8 million euros, from LTG Infra, the infrastructure subsidiary of Lietuvos Gelezinkeliai (Lithuanian Railways, LTG).
X-rays are considered to be the most effective tool for detecting contraband transported by train. The equipment previously in place in Kena broke down seven years ago and trains were now checked manually.
Customs officials would almost weekly find large consignments of contraband on trains from Belarus, including hidden in Belaruskali’s fertiliser shipments. The scale of smuggling is believed to have declined after Belarusian fertiliser shipments to Lithuania stopped due to sanctions on the Belarusian potash giant. (LRT/Business World Magazine)