Azerbaijan, Baku, March 15 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
French SYSTRA has signed a contract with Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) (Kazakh Railway) to oversee the design and to supervise the construction of a high-speed rail line between the cities of Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan, the SYSTRA reported.
The contract was signed on 5th March in Kazakhstan's capital city of Astana by SYSTRA CEO Pierre Verzat, and KTZ Chairman Askar Mamin, marking 10-years of successful collaboration.
It will be the first high-speed rail line in Kazakhstan and it is due for commissioning by Spring 2017 to coincide with the inauguration of the World Expo in the capital Astana.
"Covering a distance of 1000 km, the high-speed line will be designed to operate at speeds of 250km/per hour," the company said.
The rail line will run in the sparsely populated area of Central Asia where climatic conditions are extreme, with variations in temperature of up to 75°C between summer and winter are normal. The high-speed line will comprise of a 10km bridge over Lake Balkhash.
SYSTRA is involved in every high-speed rail project in France and is currently working on the Southern Europe Atlantic line (Tours-Bordeaux) as a member of the LISEA consortium. The company is also working on a number of international projects including the Kenitra-Tangiers line in Morocco, HS2 in the UK, and the French tender for the Rio de Janeiro-Sao Paulo-Campinas concession in Brazil with the SNCF-Alstom as well as on projects in India, Malaysia, Thailand and Russia.