Turkmenistan, Ashgabat, Nov. 3 / Trend A.Maratov /
The entrance of non-resident vehicles into Astana will be restricted from Nov. 29 in connection with the OSCE summit on Dec. 1-2, Kazakh Traffic Police Committee Chairman Kabylzhan Maytybayev said.
"Cars from Almaty and other regions will be allowed to enter Astana from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.," he said. "The entrance will not be closed completely, and we will decide in each specific case."
About 300 traffic police officers and 150 patrol cars will arrive in Astana from the country's six regions to strengthen work on road safety during the summit.
"We are preparing a plan according to which official delegations and protected persons visiting our country will move," he said, promising to provide additional information after Nov. 10.
Residents living on the city's left bank will also move according to a specific plan. Visitors to the capital from other regions will also be able to travel in and out of town on designated roads, he said.
In addition, certain measures have already been taken to accommodate the heads of delegations, their chaperones, and leaders of international NGOs and representatives of foreign mass media in Astana. Sixty-three hotels are ready to receive the guests during the OSCE summit.
The administrations of 27 hotels made major overhauls, refurbishing halls, rooms, furniture and carpeting, and even buying new linen and toiletries. At present, 53 hotels have Wi-Fi, and the rest are equipped with cable Internet.
Moreover, the city budget has also allocated funds and organized training sessions to train hotel staff to provide quality services.
A total 225 people have already passed the trainings and 120 volunteers have been selected to help hotel managers whose staffs do not speak foreign languages.
The OSCE summit will bring together the heads of states and governments of 56 member countries and 12 OSCE partner countries, as well as heads of 68 international organizations. OSCE summit has not convened for 11 years. The last summit was held in Istanbul in 1999.
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