Astana, Kazakhstan, April 23
By Daniar Mukhtarov - Trend:
Kazakh government and Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to finance a project on creating an electric train network in Astana.
"This project will contribute to urban mobility and improve quality of life, thus supporting a balanced growth in the rapidly developing capital," said the message from Kazakh Economy and Budget Planning Ministry.
The ministry also said Astana pays great attention to the introduction of modern technological solutions, which allow making citizens' life much easier and make it more convenient and comfortable.
"Smart Astana (smart city) project has already been launched. Its first phase will include two directions - "Safe City" and "Intelligent Transport System", and the smart city should be completely constructed by 2017," according to the ministry's message.
"Smart Astana" is based on the European smart cities' development model.
The ministry said the project's realization will increase the living standards in the city, improve infrastructure and increase public safety.
The Intelligent Transport System's implementation will bring 'smart traffic lights' to Astana. The system is programmed to prevent the accumulation of cars on roads and formation of traffic jams.
There will be 42 smart traffic lights on the Saryarka, Turan, Kunaev, Dostyk, Sarayshyk, Siganak streets by 2014.
A particular emphasis will be placed upon the development of public transport. The construction of the light rail transit (LRT) system will start and special large buses will be introduced in the city.
A separate lane will also be allocated for the buses, thus they will not get stuck in the traffic jams. The buses will be equipped with video surveillance and driver monitoring systems, as well as with smoke and fire detectors. A system for photo and video recording will also be installed at the roads and compliance with traffic rules will be automatically controlled.
All information from the monitoring systems will be sent to a special operational control centre in real-time mode.
Terminals for contacting the centre's operators and obtaining reference information will also be installed on the city's streets.
The construction of the operational control center will start this year. The centre's building will occupy 5,300 square meters; some 600 square meters of its rooftop will accommodate an installation providing the building's lighting.
The information on the state of public safety, city services activity, the state of communications, transport streams and the work of enterprises will be sent to the center online via a data transmission network.
The operational control centre will employ nearly 200 people. People with disabilities will also be invited to work at the centre.
The electric trains are actually modern streetcars, providing a holistic solution for integrated urban mobility, having an indicative value and potential for replication. This is very important since currently the country does not have any modern transport system.
ADB was invited by Kazakh government to provide technical assistance to thoroughly inspect the project, in order to complete the evaluation of guarantees and secure the project's readiness.
Aside form that, ADB's funds will be attracted to implement the project. International consultants will help to avoid mistakes and shortcomings in constructing the whole system and the bank's funds granted for a long period, will help to get the project off the ground in short time.
Translated by E.A.
Edited by S.I.