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Minister of Transport of Kazakhstan Marat Karabayev at the Government session reported on the work being done to develop the railway industry and increase the transit potential of the Republic,
primeminister.kz reports.
He noted that Kazakhstan is forming a network of effective transit transcontinental routes. On the territory of the country are 5 major international railway corridors that connect Chinese markets with Europe and Central Asia. Over the past 10 years, the volume of container transit along these corridors has grown almost 5 times. The volume of cargo traffic for 10 months increased by 3.5% to 263,400 thousand tonnes. Domestic traffic grew by 10.8%. The volume of transit freight traffic remained at the level of last year and amounted to 22.4 million tonnes. At the same time, container transit increased by 7.5%.
In order to further develop the industry, the Concept for the Development of the Railway Industry until 2029 was adopted. Within the framework of this document it is planned to work in the following 5 directions: renewal of rolling stock; development of junction points; development of mainline railway networks; improvement of tariff policy; development of passenger traffic.
The Minister added that work is now actively underway to increase the capacity of the TMTM and North-South transit corridors.
Due to the changes in the world of traditional logistics routes, the importance of the North-South corridor is growing day by day. The throughput capacity of the corridor is 10 million tonnes per year. The volume of cargo actually transported this year was 1.8 million tonnes. Given the potential of the corridor, it is planned to increase its capacity to 20 million tonnes," Marat Karabayev said.
For this purpose, as the Minister noted, in July this year the Road Map on synchronous development of the corridor with Iran, Turkmenistan and Russia was signed. In order to attract cargo traffic along this corridor Kazakhstan has provided special tariff discounts of 50% for transit transportations. In addition, work is underway to create a single logistics operator on the eastern route "North-South" similar to the United Transport and Logistics Company (UTLC).
It was noted that in the first 10 months of this year the volume of transportations along the TMTM corridor increased by 68% and amounted to 3.8 million tonnes.
The Minister also said that currently the total number of locomotive fleet is about 1.8 thousand units. The level of wear and tear is 61 per cent.
In order to provide rolling stock and reduce the level of wear of the fleet, 185 locomotives have been purchased this year. Next year it is planned to purchase 187 units, in the next three years it is expected to supply another 257 locomotives. This will completely eliminate their deficit," Marat Karabayev assured.
According to the Ministry of Transport, the total fleet of freight wagons is 139,000 cars. More than 300 private operators work in the market. Of these, Kazakhstan Temir Joly accounts for 38,000 wagons, which are involved in socially important transportations, i.e. in the energy sector of the country and the transport of coal supplied to the population.
Until 2026, the national operator additionally plans to supply 3 thousand gondola cars, of which 800 units have already been put into operation this year.
Special attention is paid to the passenger car fleet. Last year 118 new wagons were purchased, this year - 143 units. Next year it is planned to purchase 226 carriages. By 2029 it is planned to purchase about 1.2 thousand units of passenger cars. This will make it possible to increase the passenger car fleet to over 3 thousand units and reduce the level of wear and tear to 38%. To fulfil these tasks, it is proposed to create a united leasing company with the possibility of providing passenger cars of domestic manufacturers for lease with subsequent purchase," Marat Karabayev reported.
According to the Ministry, today there are 27 railway border points with five neighbouring countries. Of these, Dostyk, Altynkol and Saryagash stations in the directions of China and Central Asia fully use their capacity. To increase their capacity, work is underway to build additional tracks and parks, expand inspection points and terminal facilities. These measures will increase the throughput capacity of Dostyk and Altynkol stations by 2 times.
In addition, in order to further develop the transport and transit potential of the country, work is underway on the construction of 4 railway projects with a total length of 1,300 kilometres. Construction of the second tracks of the Dostyk-Moyinty railway section and the Almaty bypass line continues, and construction of the Darbaza-Maktaaral and Bakhty-Ayagoz railway lines has begun.
Implementation of these projects will increase the throughput capacity of Dostyk station up to 35 million tonnes and reduce the time of cargo transportation through Almaty station, unload Saryagash station, increase the throughput capacity up to 20 million tonnes in the direction of Central Asia and China.
In addition to the implementation of infrastructure projects, work is underway to develop the mainline railway network. By 2029, it is planned to repair 11,000 kilometres of railway sections, of which 2,800 kilometres have been repaired to date. It is also planned to build about 5,000 km of new and second tracks, to introduce autoblocking on 2,600 km, and to modernise 184 stations.
The tariff policy will be further improved for the timely implementation of projects aimed at the development of railway infrastructure. The interests of domestic producers will be fully taken into account.
The head of the Transport Ministry also said that 17.6 million passengers were transported in the first 10 months of 2024, which is 6 per cent more than in the same period last year. It is planned to transport 21 million passengers by the end of this year.
In order to create favourable conditions for transporting the population, modernisation of railway stations is required. Out of 59 main railway stations, 54 stations are in need of repair. To date, the stations in Kyzylorda, Shymkent, Pavlodar and Turkestan have been overhauled. For the rest of the stations the relevant technical documents are being developed, sources and mechanisms of financing are being worked out.
In general, the implementation of these measures will make it possible to increase exports by rail transport to 130 million tonnes by 2029, transit traffic to 45 million tonnes. Exports and imports by road transport are expected to grow by 2 times, transit by 6 times," Marat Karabayev summarised.
