Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov instructed regional governors at a government meeting to promptly rectify violations during road construction works.
According to the government press service, a number of major road projects will be completed in Kazakhstan this year. These include “Karaganda – Almaty”, “Aktobe – Kandyagash”, “Atyrau – Astrakhan” and “Taldykorgan – Oskemen”. At the same time, repair work is starting on approximately 2,500 km of national roads.
“In addition to the projects underway, it is necessary to ensure the timely design and preparation of new ones. First and foremost, land plots must be reserved in advance. This is the main issue that could affect the implementation of projects. The next problem is financing. Some regions show low rates of absorption of allocated general transfer funds. For example, this problem exists in the Aktobe, Turkestan regions and Ulytau,”, noted Olzhas Bektenov.
Meanwhile, the head of government raised the issue of strict adherence to project implementation deadlines. In this regard, he instructed that all measures be taken to achieve the set objectives within tight timeframes. Bektenov also pointed to complaints from Kazakh citizens about the state of the roads. The Prime Minister instructed regional governors to look into this matter.
“Residents of the Mugalzhar district of the Aktobe region showed the quality of asphalt laid this year between the villages of Dzhurun and Karakol, which crumbles even in your hands. And residents of the village of Koyankos in the Kerbulak district of the Zhetysu region themselves forced the contractor to stop work due to non-compliance with asphalt laying technology. Where are the regional governors, why is quality control not being carried out on an ongoing basis? First of all, it is necessary to respond immediately to residents’ complaints,”, the Prime Minister emphasised.
Separately during the meeting, Bektenov addressed the governor of the West Kazakhstan Region, Nariman Turegaliyev, regarding the measures being taken to change the road situation. It emerged that the region has the worst indicator in the country: the share of national roads in satisfactory condition is 73%, and local roads – 52%.
“The region has planned the repair of over 576 km of roads of all categories for 116 billion tenge. Ten projects with a total length of 83.4 km and a cost of 68.8 billion tenge are being implemented on the national road network. Specifically, this year it is planned to complete the major repairs and bring into operation the ‘Kaztalov – Zhanibek – Russian Federation border’ and ‘Onege – Bisen – Saykhin’ roads. Work is also underway on the reconstruction of two sections of the ‘Podstepnoye – Fedorovka – Russian Federation border’ road,”, Turegaliyev stated.