ASTANA, Kazakhstan, November 22. Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ, a national company) plans to build 1,334 kilometers of railways in three years, Chairman of the Board of KTZ Nurlan Sauranbayev said at a government meeting, Trend reports.
KTZ has designed a Railway Infrastructure Development Program to ensure the ongoing movement of export and transit cargo. The program specifies the scope of maintenance, infrastructure modernization, and new track construction.
Measures to eradicate restricting zones will be performed until 2030. It is planned to lengthen existing tracks, build additional station tracks, open new separate points, introduce automatic blocking, and build second tracks.
Kazakhstan Railways is currently working on four major infrastructural projects. Within three years, a total of 1,334 kilometers of railway lines will be built in sections Dostyk-Moyynty, Bakhty-Ayagoz, Darbaza-Maktaaral, and a bypass around Almaty.
The Dostyk-Moyynty railway line has been actively modernized since last year. Second tracks are being installed along the existing route, doubling the capacity of the section.
The construction of a railway line bypassing the city of Almaty has begun, which will relieve the Almaty hub by 40 percent and reduce the delivery time of transit cargo.
In addition, on November 25, the construction of the Darbaza-Maktaaral railway line will be launched, which will relieve congestion on the Saryagash-Tashkent section.
In December, it is planned to launch the construction of the Bakhty-Ayagoz railway line. The new line will increase freight traffic in the direction of China.
Furthermore, loading on the Kazakhstan Railways network (KTZ, national corporation) totaled 213.8 million tons from January to October 2023, 2.1 tons more than the previous year.
Over 138 million tons were transported by rail throughout the republic. Exports increased by 7.1 percent to 75.7 million tons.
During the reporting period, over 87.3 million tons of coal were loaded. Including within the republic, 61.2 million tons.