The Smart Qostanai project has been operating in Kostanay since 2018 and brings together medical, utility, social and information services. However, with a city population of around 270 thousand people, only 15 thousand users are registered in the app. At the same time, 36.7 million tenge is earmarked for its maintenance and development in 2026.
WHAT IS KNOWN
According to the Kostanay city akimat, the app was created as a single platform for accessing city services and reference information. Over eight years its functionality has expanded, but the number of registered users currently stands at around 5.6% of the city's population, "Nash Kostanay" reports.
It turns out that a digital service that receives budget funding every year covers a relatively small share of Kostanay residents. At the same time, it is unknown how many registered users regularly open the app and use its services. The akimat's response did not provide statistics on the active audience.
WHAT CAN BE DONE THROUGH SMART QOSTANAI
The app brings together services related to housing and communal services (HCS). In the "Housing Fund" and "My Contracts" sections, you can view information about the rental and privatisation of municipal housing, charges and debts.
The "IHC" module is intended for recording and monitoring the development of plots allocated for individual housing construction. And "HCS Repair" allows for the recording of houses and payments under the housing stock modernisation programme.
There are also less obvious functions. For example, "My Bicycles" helps to find stolen transport, while Aman ID allows you to create an electronic card with information about a person and their relatives' contacts for use in an emergency.
Through the app you can also book a doctor's appointment, view job vacancies, check information about a car's technical inspection, track a postal item, and find out train timetables and the city's events listings. City news, calculators, a bonus programme and the ability to send a request to the iKomek-109 contact centre are also available.
WHAT CAPABILITIES ARE PROVIDED FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES
Smart Qostanai has a Life Helper section. It contains information about benefits and how to obtain them, a register of accessible city infrastructure facilities and the "InvaTaxi" service.
There is also the ability to record an invataxi trip using a QR code. The passenger scans it at the start of the trip to confirm that the service has been used.
In addition, the app supports screen access technologies VoiceOver on iPhone and TalkBack on Android. They allow blind and visually impaired users to interact with the interface using voice guidance.
HOW MUCH WAS ALLOCATED FOR MAINTENANCE AND DEVELOPMENT
Almost 36.7 million tenge is earmarked for the maintenance and development of Smart Qostanai in 2026.
The department also reported work on introducing a service for issuing free tickets to selected city events for people with disabilities. Thus, the app's functionality continues to change.
At the same time, the question of how much the already functioning capabilities are in demand remains open. The mere presence of dozens of services in one app does not yet indicate how actively residents use them.
CONTEXT
Questions about spending on city digital platforms have arisen not only in Kostanay. Earlier, the FBRK editorial team examined a procurement by the Almaty digitalisation department for the development of a SuperApp worth 357.8 million tenge.
Particular attention was drawn to the timelines: the contractor was given just 25 calendar days to create an app with an AI assistant, a CRM system and 17 functional modules. In addition, Almaty had already presented similar projects in 2024 and 2025, so the question arose as to what happened to the previous developments and why a new procurement was needed.
