12 January 2004
Brest Customhouse moves into new building

 The Brest Customhouse will soon move into a new building, completed in Brest on December 30. It is located not far from the Zapadny Bug Customhouse, which ordered the new building.
The colleagues with the Brest Customhouse can vacate the offices that they rent at the main railroad station and several other places in the regional capital and move into the new building at 45 Gavrilova
Street any time now, the chief of the Zapadny Bug Customhouse, Vyacheslav Osintsev, told BelaPAN.
The five-storied building occupies an area of 4,000 square meters and contains a cafeteria and offices. Its construction was financed by the national government.The Zapadny Bug Customhouse has commissioned several construction projects in the last two years,
considerably improving the border infrastructure and working conditions for its staff, said Mr. Osintsev.
The completion of the Kozlovichi checkpoint's modernization in late 2003 has helped noticeably speed up the customs clearance of cargoes, he noted.
On December 23, a government commission certified the readiness condition of the upgraded Varshavsky Most checkpoint, which now has 12 traffic lanes and the necessary infrastructure. That project was financed jointly by Belarus and Russia. Aleksandr Lukashenko is expected to attend an opening ceremony for the checkpoint later this month. The Varshavsky Most checkpoint was in operation during the entire period of the modernization.
According to Mr. Osintsev, the European Union will soon announce its decision on financing the construction of the Kozlovichi 2 checkpoint, which would enable the clearance of both trucks and cars.
The modernization of the Mokrany checkpoint on the Ukrainian border is scheduled for 2005, and the modernization of the Domachevo checkpoint on the Polish border may start in the near future.