“My question is directed to the speaker, esteemed Marat Karimzhanovich. In your report, you use route throughput as the main criterion: 10 million tons, 6 million tons, 4 million tons.
The figures are impressive. Prospects are certainly good, but I would like to know how loaded these routes are today.
For instance, the company KTZ has attracted loans and government funds for the construction of the Kazakhstan-Beineu and Beineu-Turkmenistan border railways.
Currently, KTZ is repaying these loans at the expense of consumers. What volume of cargo was planned, and how much is actually being transported on these routes now? Does the profit from transportation cover the attracted loans and invested funds?
How effectively are these two routes operating today?” asked Deputy Mukash Iskandirov.
Marat Karabaev responded that the current assessed throughput capacity of the Kazakhstan-Beineu route is 6 million tons, while the actual volume of transported cargo is about 2.7 million tons. Thus, the route is not yet reaching its full capacity.
“There is a second road between Kazakhstan and Beineu, stretching 146 km, which connects the route with Turkmenistan. There are also certain challenges there: if the throughput capacity of this road is 6 million tons, it actually transports only about 1.5 million tons per year.
However, this does not mean that the development of the routes is impossible. We continue to work on optimizing their use.
The situation is complicated by geopolitical factors, including the active development of trans-Afghan routes that compete with our paths. Furthermore, the topic of integration with Turkmenistan remains relevant.
In the past three years, Central Asian countries, including Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, have been actively interacting with Russia, which also affects the load on the routes,” added the Minister of Transport.
According to him, the agency is working on addressing these issues to enhance the efficiency of infrastructure use and achieve investment payback.