Light rail rolling stock for Almaty will cost 20 billion tenge

Almaty trams will be replaced by light rail and noiseless transport by 2014, Almaty Department of Passenger Transport and Roads told Tengrinews.kz. According to deputy head of the department Gani Murzakhanov, the new railway will be 13.8 km long. “Lines will be laid in two different directions,” Murzakhanov said. “As for the pilot line, the light rail transport is designed to replace the old tram lines on Momyshuly street from the turning of the ring to Tole bi street and to Baitursynov street and then to Makatayev street. From Makatayev street it will continue to Zhetysu street and then to the turning ring,” he said. This route will be 27.27km long one way. Inekon Group's rolling stock, 21-Superior Plus model made in Czech Republic, has been selected for development of the project. The Department stressed that other trains with equal technical characteristics may be bought later. Research Institute of Transport and Communications has already made a cost estimate for the first phase of and project and checked by the international financial institutes. “We are planning to purchase 34 trains for the pilot line and 20 trains for the first year of exploitation. One modern train costs around 582 million tenge ($3.9 million),” Murzakhanov added. The total cost of the project is around 44.6 billion tenge ($301 million). The Department added that ways of funding the project are currently being considered, in particular, it is planned to attraction funding under the state guarantee or on state-private partnership principles. Earlier Tengrinews.kz English reported that construction of light rail tramway line started in Astana . The first line of light rail transport will be launched in 2014 and connect the airport with the railroad station. By Roza Yessenkulova