Prime Minister Bektenov tasks to speed up railway stations’ modernization

Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov assigned a task to the Ministry of Transport to speed up modernization of railway stations across the country, Kazinform News Agency reports.

At today’s meeting of the Government, he stated the need to make Kazakhstan a full-fledged transport and logistics hub, for which the entire railway infrastructure shall be modernized.

He said that the volume of transit transportations is projected to increase from 28 million tons to 45 million tons to reach 2 million TEU.

“As is known, the countries of the Central Asian region are developing their infrastructure and are setting ambitious goals to join the international transport routes. Namely for this reason, we need to actively improve our infrastructure, to eliminate bottlenecks and ramp up transit transportation volumes along the East-West route. We need to be more competitive and demonstrate the benefit of our routes and services to our partners,” said Olzhas Bektenov.

The Prime Minister pointed out the need to modernize almost 90% of railway stations and set a number of tasks to the Ministry of Transport. 

The first task is to develop a certain mechanism of implementation of priority infrastructure projects (repair of backbone railroad network and modernization of railway stations) and determine a source of funding together with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy company.

The second task is to prepare a set of measures to support private carriers, as “the number of passenger railroad cars is projected to exceed 3,000 in 2028, which will fully satisfy the country’s domestic demand.” “However, private carriers face difficulties in renovation of their railroad cars,” the Prime Minister said.

Bektenov also stated the need to accelerate the process of improvement of Aktau Port’s infrastructure to raise the transshipment of rail cargo and increase the capacity of maritime transportations.

“The Ministry of Transport and Kazakhstan Temir Zholy should complete the construction of the container hub and dredging works in the Aktau Port next year,” he emphasized.

Earlier, Kazinform reported that 54 railway stations of Kazakhstan need to be modernized.