ASTANA, Kazakhstan, March 29. Construction of a railway in Kazakhstan bypassing Almaty is on schedule, Trend reports, citing Kazakhstan Railways (KTZ, a national company).
According to the KTZ, currently, the work is being carried out on sections of 20 km in length. More than 100 units of special equipment and about 300 people are involved.
The total length of the main tracks is 75 km, and the and the station tracks are 50 km. In total, upon completion of the project, 125 km of railway tracks will be built.
Also, the project will involve excavation work with a volume of 6.5 million m3, 18 bridges, one road overpass at the Zhetygen station, and 49 culverts of different diameters and configurations.
As KTZ noted, the implementation of the project will make it possible to redirect freight traffic to the new Zhetygen-Kazybek bek railway, bypassing the Almaty station.
"The new line is of great importance for the development of the transport and transit potential of Kazakhstan, which will reduce the load on the Almaty hub by 40 percent and significantly reduce the time of cargo delivery," KTZ said.
Notably, the implementation of several large-scale projects began in the field of railway transport in Kazakhstan in 2023.
The construction of a railway line bypassing the Almaty station (74 km) and the Darbaza - Maktaaral line (152 km) began in November. The second will enhance throughput in the direction of Central Asia by 10 million tons.
In addition, work on the Bakhty-Ayagoz railway line, which will span 272 kilometers, began in December. The realization of this project will enhance freight turnover between Kazakhstan and China by 20 million tons.
In general, over the next 3 years, more than 1,300 km of new railways will be built in the country.