Kazakhstan, Astana, 21 January / corr. Trend K. Konirova/ The company Kazakhstan Temirjoli require Government support to increase railway service tariffs by 15%. Jaksibek Kulekev, the head of the Kazakhstan Temirjoli said in a meeting of the Ministry of Transport and Communication held with the participation of the prime minister Kerim Mesimov.
"The railway transport in the country is in the critical situation and there is a need for immediate steps to strengthen the railway structure which otherwise will become a drag on the economy of the country," Kulekev said.
According to Kulekev, wear and tear of the main railway elements has reached 70% whereas the average permissible level of wear and tear is 30-40%. The wear and tear of the automatic block system is 37% which poses a danger to the security of traffic. "The special cases (accidents, setoff) have increased by 6.3%," the head of the Kazakhstan Temirjoli said. The mobile staff also has a high level of wear and tear; the depot of the freight car 71%, passenger car depot 73% and the locomotive depot 76%.
"The deficiency of the mobile staff is a serious problem. The refusals to the consignor of goods totaled 50 mln tons of goods in 2007 which led to the outflow of the company's income," Kulekev said.
The above-mentioned problems are appeared because of the low prices of the railway service, he said.