On Dec. 27, 2013 Akim (Mayor) of Astana Imangali Tasmagambetov elaborated upon the development of transportation infrastructure in the city at a CCS press briefing. “Over 330 km of roads have been built and repaired in Astana in the last three years. Over 20 kilometers of roads, four transport junctions, three crossovers and two bridges were built as part of the Small Transport Ring. Moreover, construction of a number of important streets was finished. Thus, in 2013, it became possible to drive along Beissekova Street from Korgalzhyn Highway to Seifullin Street and to go across the river on a new bridge. Traffic exiting onto Saryarka and Turan avenues reached 30 thousand cars per day,” Tasmagambetov added. He also commented onconstruction of the light-rail transport system. “The expenses for construction of the 21 km first line of the transport system are nearly 250 billion tenge (US$1.62 billion), but a bus-rapid transit system of the same length will cost only 85 billion tenge (US$549 million). The comparison speaks volumes; the difference in cost is 151 billion tenge (US$976 million). Thus, it was decided to implement the latter and complete it in 2016,” Tasmagambetov said.
The implementation of the Smart Astana project was initiated in the capital city at the end of 2013 in order to prepare the city for the international specialised exhibition EXPO 2017. The main purpose of the project is to improve the living standards and welfare of the residents of the city and to modernise Astana’s infrastructure and improve its public safety and security. The Smart Astana project is based on the models of European smart cities and is focused on interconnection in 6 areas: a smart economy, smart administration, smart life, smart mobility, smart people and smart environment. The concept of a smart city is based on the synergy of these characteristics. KPMG has begun development of the first part of design specifications and estimates for the Smart Astana project. Besides, taking into consideration the international practices of development of smart cities and the scale of the project, PwC consulting was also brought on to the project. The company is currently working on development of the Smart Astana roadmap which outlines the target indicators of the project, smart initiatives that will be introduced within the project and the terms of its implementation. Smart Astana’s key concepts have already been defined. These are the comprehensive life sustaining systems that will ensure safety in the city and secure the modernisation of its transport system.
So far, three projects have been implemented in the North Kazakhstan region’s engineering sector within the State Programme of Accelerated Industrial and Innovative Development for 2010-2014, BNews.kz reported. “ZIKSTO implemented two projects in 2010. The first was a project on designing a promising grain hopper wagon model and setting up production facilities for these wagons capable of producing 400 hoppers per year. Production was launched in December of 2010. Production is expected to reach full capacity in 2014. Another project focused on the development of a model of specialised container cars. The production of such cars was launched in July 2010.The factory is capable of producing 200 of them per year. The plant is expected to reach its maximum output in 2014,” head of the regional department for industrial and innovative development Marat Iskakov said. Munaimash implemented a modernisation project for the mechanised production of oil and gas industry goods. The project was implemented with the support of KDB-Leasing as part of the Productivity – 2020 programme. Its cost 1.497.5 billion tenge (US$9.7 million). The factory will be capable of producing 7.5 thousand kits for oil-well pumps. The regional Industrialisation Map has 31 investment projects worth 38.2 billion tenge (US$247 million). Construction will create 1,818 new jobs and 1,894 jobs will be created at the factories themselves. The region has already launched 27 new factories worth 26.4 billion tenge (US$170.7 million). Three projects worth 1.7 billion tenge (US$11 million) were implemented in the engineering sector, three projects totalling 6.1 billion tenge (US$39.4 million) – in the ore mining sector, two projects worth 0.5 billion tenge (US$3.23 million) – in the construction industry, 18 projects totalling 17.9 billion tenge (US$115.7 million) – in the agro-industrial sector and one project amounting to 0.2 billion tenge (US$1.293 million) – in the energy sector. In Jan. – Dec. 2013, 34 new production lines were put into service in the region and 966 new jobs were created.
