ASTANA – Inspection of passengers’ luggage will be performed at 16 railroad stations in the country, Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ) press service reports.
“This procedure will enter into force from Feb. 1 this year to step up the measures of safety of passengers and provision of antiterrorist protection,” the official KTZ press release reads.
The procedure will be going through three stages, according to head of Railway Stations Management Department at KTZ Zhuban Korpebayev: from Feb. 1., at the railroad stations in Almaty 1 and Almaty 2; from April 1 at the station in Astana and from June 1 at the other 13 stations.
The railway company has purchased 56 sets of inspecting year for the new programme, according to the press service.
Korpebayev encourages passengers to arrive in the station earlier than usual to go through the checks and not be late for the train.
“I think it is a good measure and it can be easily explained in wake of such events as the Universiade and EXPO 2017 in the country,” said Astana resident Arman Nurkenov, who frequents the railroad station to either travel himself or meet his relatives arriving from his home town of Almaty.
“It will be inconvenient, of course, but many countries in Europe had terrorist attacks and only after that started taking preventive measures and being strict on security. It is good to know our authorities are thinking ahead of time and are taking precautions,” Nurkenov added.
On Jan. 16, the Anti-Terrorist Centre of Kazakhstan cancelled the yellow (moderate) level of terrorist threat across the country. The yellow level came into force June 6 after the terrorist attacks in Aktobe.
The yellow level was enforced while authorities were verifying information about any possible act of terrorism. This is the lowest of three levels, the next level is orange, in which information of a possible terrorist threat or act of terrorism has been confirmed.
