ALMATY, April 23 (Xinhua) -- Kazakh Prime Minister Olzhas Bektenov on Thursday announced that Kazakhstan plans to build 5,000 km of new railways over the next four years to boost its railway transportation capacity for both passengers and cargo.
Kazakhstan aims to increase rail cargo transit volume to 100 million tonnes per year by 2035, the prime minister told the 40th Meeting of the Conference of General Directors of Railways of the Organization for Co-operation between Railways (OSJD) in Astana.
Container capacities at the western ports of Aktau and Kuryk are currently being expanded to increase cargo volume from 80,000 to 300,000 twenty-foot equivalent units annually by 2029. Cargo delivery times have been reduced to 18 days and are projected to reach 10 days, Bektenov added.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, OSJD unites a network of more than 320,000 km of railways across more than 30 countries, transporting about 5.5 billion passengers and approximately 5 billion tonnes of cargo annually. ■