Ulaanbaatar Representative Khural issued a decision to prohibit the transportation of hazardous items on trains within the city.

According to the regulation, hazardous materials on trains are items that may cause an explosion, fire, harmful gas emission, spills, human or animal death, illness, poisoning, radiation, burns or any kind of damage to the environment or property.

An unofficial study shows that in the first quarter of 2014, 3.6 million tons of dangerous items of 52 varieties were carried by Ulaanbaatar Railway.

The U.N. classifies dangerous goods in the classes of explosives, gases, flammable liquids, flammable solids, oxidizers and organic peroxides, toxic and infectious substances, radioactive material, or corrosive substances and suggests that they not be made, packaged, labeled or carried in residential areas.  

Dangerous items identified by the new regulation will now be loaded in Bagakhangai, district where their classification and packaging will be arranged. Relevant agencies report that there is no guarantee that the new regulation will be properly complied with during transport, loading, unloading and storage by rail within the city.

The Ulaanbaatar General Development Plan through 2020 includes the development of Bagankhangai district as a suburban satellite town, where transport logistics, wholesale business, food, light industry, livestock feed, and a refinery plant and warehouse for hazardous items will be built.

The ban on transport of dangerous items by rail within residential areas will be effective until July 1, 2019.