Our People > Dmitry Pokidaev

Dmitry Pokidaev

Journalist

Dmitry Pokidaev is a journalist based in Astana, Kazakhstan, with experience at some of the country's top media outlets. Before his career in journalism, Pokidaev worked as an academic, teaching Russian language and literature.

Articles

AI in Education

Tokayev Criticizes Delays in Kazakhstan’s School AI Rollout

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has criticized delays in Kazakhstan’s drive to introduce artificial intelligence into schools, saying the government had failed to implement his May decree properly ahead of the new academic year. Speaking at Kazakhstan’s annual August conference for educators, Tokayev said: “Its implementation ahead of the new academic year has not been properly ensured. This is a major shortcoming.” He called for urgent measures to regulate and systematize the use of AI by children and teachers. The May decree set a tight schedule. A comprehensive implementation plan was due by July 1. Pilot schools and their internet connections were to be ready by August 1, along with synchronized regional plans. National standards governing AI use are due by September 1. Tokayev did not specify which targets had been missed. The standards are intended to cover AI-generated educational content, assessment, and academic integrity. The decree also requires stronger protection of students’ personal data and a professional development plan for teachers. It says AI should be used as an additional classroom tool without replacing teachers’ work. Astana sees the program as preparation for employment rather than simply another digital classroom initiative. “Artificial intelligence and its tools are not amusing toys, but a means of earning a living,” Tokayev said. AI material is due to be added to existing digital literacy and computer science courses during the 2026-27 academic year. A separate rural-school pilot is scheduled to begin on September 1 in ten small schools in the Pavlodar and Kyzylorda regions. Officials plan to expand it to 50 schools in November and another 300 in January 2027. The pilot will test personalized learning in fourth-grade mathematics, digital literacy, native-language classes, and AI. The government sees the technology as one way to narrow the longstanding gap in educational opportunities between urban and rural schools. International guidance points to questions the national standards may need to settle. UNESCO recommends a minimum age of 13 for independent use of generative AI, protection of students’ personal data, and teacher training. Kazakhstan’s decree addresses data protection and training but does not specify an age threshold. The government has until September 1 to approve the national standards and its plan for teachers’ professional development.

20 hours ago

Oil Refining

After CPC Disruptions, Kazakhstan Wants to Refine More Oil at Home

Kazakhstan wants to more than double its oil refining capacity and sell more petrol and diesel to neighboring countries. The case for reducing its reliance on crude exports has gained urgency. Disruptions to the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) this year have already forced the country to cut its 2026 oil production forecast by 2 million tonnes. Kazakhstan produced 99.6 million tonnes of oil in 2025 but refined only 18.4 million tonnes. Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov said at a briefing on August 25 that refining capacity is planned to increase to 40 million tonnes. “We want to bring this ratio, as in other developed countries that are also producers, to one to two or one to three,” Akkenzhenov said. According to him, Kazakhstan eventually expects to supply neighboring countries with motor fuel and expand its export potential. This does not mean abandoning crude oil exports: even after refining capacity reaches 40 million tonnes, a significant share of production will continue to be exported. Astana is instead seeking to shift the balance toward finished products. The oil refining industry development concept runs through 2040. According to the Energy Ministry, Kazakhstan’s refineries processed 18.4 million tonnes of oil in 2025 and produced 15.47 million tonnes of petroleum products. The concept adopted in 2025 envisaged refining rising to 39.2 million tonnes a year by 2040. The government has since accelerated the timetable, targeting 40 million tonnes of annual capacity by 2033. Average refining depth at the country’s three main refineries reached 90% in 2025 and is targeted to rise to 94%. To achieve this, Kazakhstan is preparing to build a fourth major refinery with capacity of up to 10 million tonnes a year. Possible locations include the Mangystau, Atyrau and Turkestan regions, as well as Ulytau, with the authorities expecting to select a site by the end of the year. The new plant could begin operating by 2033, with the Energy Ministry expecting its launch to fully cover domestic demand for jet fuel and allow Kazakhstan to expand exports of K5-standard petroleum products, broadly equivalent to Europe’s Euro 5 standard. Problems with the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, Kazakhstan’s main route for getting oil to the global market, have strengthened the case for diversifying the way Kazakhstan uses and exports its oil. The pipeline runs through Russia to a Black Sea terminal near Novorossiysk, meaning disruptions there can quickly affect production in Kazakhstan. On August 25, Akkenzhenov said the country’s oil production forecast for 2026 had been cut from 98 million to 96 million tonnes. He estimated production losses resulting from attacks on CPC infrastructure at around 3.5 million tonnes. The authorities are trying to compensate for part of the lost volumes by rescheduling major maintenance at large oil fields. Astana is also looking for additional routes to global markets. Akkenzhenov identified Baku-Supsa, the pipeline running from Azerbaijan to Georgia’s Black Sea coast, as one option, saying it could carry around 5 million tonnes a year. The route has seen only limited use since 2022, although...

2 days ago

Dastan Satpayev

Dastan Satpayev Burnley Debut Marks First Step in English Football

One of Central Asia’s most promising young footballers, Dastan Satpayev, made his competitive debut in English football on August 23. The 18-year-old Kazakhstan international came off the bench for Burnley in an away match against West Bromwich Albion in the Championship, the second tier of English football. Satpayev came on in the 58th minute with Burnley trailing 2-1, but was unable to prevent his side falling to a 3-1 defeat. Why Satpayev Ended Up in the Championship For a region whose footballers have rarely moved directly into leading Western European leagues, Satpayev’s career is being closely watched. In July, the forward joined Chelsea for preseason and scored in one of the club’s friendly matches. Chelsea formally completed his transfer on August 14, signing him to a contract running until 2033. He then joined Burnley on loan for the 2026/27 season. Loans are routinely used by major English clubs to give young players first-team experience elsewhere while they remain under contract with their parent club. Satpayev has said the move will give him a chance to adapt to English football. The Championship is far from a youth or reserve league. Sometimes dubbed "the toughest league in Europe", its marathon 46-game season features 24 clubs, many of whom, including Burnley, have appeared in the Premier League. “I Just Need to Keep Working Hard” Ahead of his debut, Burnley’s official website published Satpayev’s first interview since joining the Lancashire club. “I think this loan is a good step for me. I can adapt here and see what it is like to play in England. Playing in the Championship will help me get used to English football,” the forward said. Satpayev also noted that the intensity of the English schedule, with its 46 league games, plus domestic cup fixtures, will help his development. “I just need to keep working hard, keep moving forward and keep working. It’s also good that there are so many games in the Championship and Premier League: for a footballer, it’s great when you have a match every three or four days. It helps you stay sharp all the time,” he said. His First Half-Hour On August 23, head coach Nicky Hayen selected him for the away match against West Bromwich Albion. The Kazakh forward came on with Burnley trailing 2-1, replacing Armando Broja in the 58th minute. The visitors were unable to turn the game around. West Brom scored a third goal from the penalty spot and won 3-1. After the match, Hayen did not single out the Kazakh player’s debut for assessment. Instead, the head coach expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of the team as a whole, particularly after halftime. “The defeat was fully deserved. They had much more energy, and you could see that in the duels and the second balls. We played too slowly and were a long way from the level of last week,” Hayen said. Early reactions to Satpayev were broadly positive. British football blogger Josh Pearson, who regularly covers the Championship, suggested after...

4 days ago

e-Commerce

Kazakhstan E-Commerce Grows as Shoppers Spend over $8 Billion in 2025

Kazakh consumers spent 3.77 trillion tenge (about $8.2 billion) on online purchases in 2025, roughly 50% more than two years earlier. E-commerce now accounts for 14.3% of the country’s retail market, with most sales taking place through marketplaces such as Kaspi.kz, Wildberries, and Ozon. A marketplace is a digital platform that brings together products from multiple sellers rather than operating as a single retailer’s online store. In 2025, they accounted for 86% of online retail sales, up from 84.9% a year earlier, according to Kazakhstan’s Bureau of National Statistics. The share of sales through retailers’ own websites fell from 15.1% to 14%, although their turnover still rose in absolute terms. The online shopping basket is changing as well. Phones and gadgets remain the largest category, accounting for 17.1%. Clothing, footwear, and sporting goods make up 12.4%, household goods 12.1%, home appliances 10.3%, and food 7.4%. Growth in the grocery segment is changing delivery requirements. Five dark-store projects – facilities used to process online orders – were built in Almaty, Astana, Karaganda, and Aktobe last year. Marketplaces also installed 2,300 new parcel lockers. The rapid growth of the market has been supported by the widespread use of cashless payments, banking apps, and retail fintech. Domestic platforms are developing alongside major foreign players, intensifying competition for Kazakh consumers. But the presence of large cross-border platforms also creates additional logistical risks. In July, Ukrainian strikes on Wildberries logistics facilities in Russia affected Kazakh sellers that relied on the company’s Russian infrastructure. Following the attacks, Wildberries began searching for additional warehouse capacity in Kazakhstan, where the company is already developing logistics complexes in Almaty and Astana. Expanding domestic warehousing and infrastructure can shorten delivery times and reduce the dependence of some trade flows on logistics centers abroad. New Kazakh players are also emerging. In Karaganda, for example, the Teez marketplace is developing its own warehouse infrastructure and nationwide delivery network. The market’s growth has also brought problems for sellers, with Kazakh entrepreneurs citing difficulties with international payments and double taxation among the main barriers to growth. For small businesses, marketplaces provide access to a large customer base, but they also make sales dependent on the platform’s commissions and logistics. The rules for foreign players are changing as well. Since January 1, 2026, foreign marketplaces serving Kazakh consumers have been required to comply with new tax laws. The VAT rate for foreign platforms has risen from 12% to 16%. The legislation also allows Kazakhstan to suspend access to platforms that ignore registration notices. The government is anticipating further e-commerce growth. The Ministry of Trade’s official target is to increase its share of retail turnover to 18.5% by 2029. In 2024, the market was worth about 3.2 trillion tenge and accounted for 14.1% of retail trade, the Ministry of Trade and Integration said its volume had increased roughly fivefold since 2020. E-commerce is now expanding from a much larger base. Marketplaces already account for the overwhelming majority of online sales, so the next stage of market development will depend not...

7 days ago

Electricity supply

Kazakhstan Targets End to Electricity Deficit by 2027

Just days after a major disruption hit power systems across Central Asia, Kazakhstan reaffirmed its plan to fully cover domestic electricity demand by the first quarter of 2027. By the end of next year, the Energy Ministry expects the country to have a surplus of about 1.3 billion kWh. That margin would still leave relatively little room for error because it is equivalent to only about 1% of the electricity Kazakhstan consumed in 2025, when demand grew by 3.8%. The August 14 outage affected parts of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. Power was cut to some consumers in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, which has a population of about 2.4 million. The precise chain of events remains unclear. Kazakhstan’s national grid operator KEGOC said the disruption began when two hydrogenerators at Kyrgyzstan’s Toktogul Hydropower Plant shut down, sharply changing power flows and overloading Kazakhstan’s North-East-South transmission corridor. Kyrgyzstan’s Energy Ministry later acknowledged that the Toktogul shutdown was the initial disturbance but said it should not automatically be treated as the direct cause of the subsequent outages elsewhere in Central Asia. A special commission is investigating the incident, although public statements so far have not identified its chair. The outage exposed a risk in regional grid connections. Kazakhstan’s grid is connected to Russia and neighboring Central Asian systems. These links allow electricity to move across borders, but a sudden loss of generation or a major transmission failure can also affect several countries in quick succession. Kazakhstan has been a net electricity importer for several years. In 2025, the country generated 123.1 billion kWh and consumed 124.6 billion kWh. Electricity imports from Russia totaled 4.64 billion kWh, compared with exports of 2.16 billion kWh in the opposite direction. The net inflow from Russia fell from 3.41 billion kWh in 2024 to 2.48 billion kWh in 2025. Electricity consumption increased by 3.8% in 2025, while peak demand reached a record 17.724 GW on December 18. Kazakhstan is also seeking to attract energy-intensive industries and large data centers. Those expectations are reflected in longer-term development plans, which already include 7.8 GW of new and modernized coal-fired generation by 2030, with investment estimated at more than $15.5 billion. The authorities expect to close the remaining short-term deficit by rapidly commissioning new generating capacity. Around 2.6 GW is scheduled to come online in 2026. Four gas-fired power plants and expansion projects at two existing power stations account for part of that capacity, while ten new renewable energy facilities are also planned. The Energy Ministry says these projects should allow Kazakhstan to fully meet its electricity needs by the end of the first quarter of 2027. A further 845 MW is planned for 2027, of which 570 MW would come from renewable projects. By the end of that year, the ministry expects an electricity surplus of around 1.3 billion kWh. Renewable energy is expanding alongside Kazakhstan’s continued reliance on conventional generation. Thermal power plants accounted for 74.4% of electricity generation in 2025. Solar and wind facilities, along with biogas plants, provided 6.1%. The...

1 week ago

AI Education

Kazakhstan Rolls Out AI Education From School to University

In the 2026-27 academic year, Kazakhstan’s first artificial intelligence university plans to enroll 600 students and trainees. AI use is also being expanded in schools, with a separate pilot planned for ten small rural schools. Kazakhstan is therefore trying to build its AI talent pipeline from both ends of the education system. Science and Higher Education Minister Sayasat Nurbek announced the first intake at Qazaq AI Research University (QAIRU) during a government meeting. Nurbek said 400 students would be admitted to bachelor’s programs, including 308 on state grants, while another 100 would join master’s programs. “In addition, the Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund will send 100 of its employees to study under the MBA AI+X program,” he said. QAIRU is located in Astana on the former EXPO 2017 site, alongside Astana Hub and the Alem.ai cluster. The university says it intends to train engineers capable of building their own AI systems rather than simply using existing AI services. Its bachelor’s program lasts three years and is taught entirely in English. Education is based on the AI+X model, combining artificial intelligence with specific disciplines and industries, including healthcare and energy. The university was first proposed while the project was still being developed. Other parts of higher education are also changing. According to Nurbek, Unified National Testing (UNT) certificates are already available through eGov, and AI proctoring is in use. The National Testing Center has also launched AI-Talapker, a chatbot that answers questions about the UNT and university admissions. Key information on students and graduates is also being consolidated on the Unified Higher Education Platform. “The next stage is the introduction of artificial intelligence-based solutions into the educational process,” Nurbek said. He said these would be used for admissions and to support personalized learning and career guidance. In schools, students will encounter AI earlier in their education. Education Minister Zhuldyz Suleimenova told the same government meeting that artificial intelligence technologies will become part of the educational process in the new academic year. “One of the features of the new academic year will be the use and study of artificial intelligence technologies in schools,” Suleimenova said. AI content will be added to the existing digital literacy and computer science curricula. Separately, the government has decided to test AI tools in rural schools, where opportunities to teach individual subjects are often more limited than in large cities. The pilot will begin on September 1 in ten small schools in the Pavlodar and Kyzylorda regions, with instruction in Kazakh and Russian. AI solutions will be tested in fourth-grade classes covering mathematics, digital literacy, the native language, and AI. The pilot will expand to 50 schools in November, and another 300 schools are scheduled to join in January 2027. The pilot phase is expected to cover 500 small rural schools. Officials have assessed internet speeds and computer availability, along with staffing capacity and schools’ readiness to introduce AI solutions. More than 350,000 teachers have already received training in the use of AI in education. For rural Kazakhstan, this part of the program...

1 week ago

Sports Reform

Kazakhstan Saves More Than $17 Million Under New Sports Club Funding Rules

On June 16, 2025, Kazakhstan stopped using state and quasi-state funds to finance foreign athletes at professional sports clubs. Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Tourism and Sports now says that measure, combined with wider limits on club budgets, has saved more than 8 billion tenge, or about $17.2 million. The change follows years in which football and hockey clubs spent significant amounts of public money on foreign players. Clubs in Kazakhstan may still sign foreign players, provided their contracts are financed by sponsors or private investors rather than public money. Public spending on foreign players was already under scrutiny before the reform. In January 2025, Ulan Sarkulov, then first deputy chairman of Kazakhstan’s Anti-Corruption Agency, said FC Astana and HC Barys had received nearly 100 billion tenge in total over six years. Foreign players’ salaries accounted for around 60–70% of FC Astana’s budget. The funding restrictions are part of Kazakhstan’s effort to reduce professional football’s reliance on the state. Several clubs have since come under private control. FC Kaisar was placed under the private management of construction entrepreneur Islamgali Kozbakov, while Kaspi.kz co-founder Mikheil Lomtadze became the owner of FC Zhenis. A company in the Freedom Holding Corp. group, founded by Timur Turlov, bought FC Shakhter Karaganda at auction. In January 2026, FC Aktobe was sold for 364 million tenge, about $710,000 at the time, to Qazaq Stroy Properties, owned by businessman Nurlan Artikbayev. As The Times of Central Asia previously reported, the change in ownership was followed by the signing of former Manchester United player Nani. Under FC Aktobe’s privatization plan, some public funding was retained. Before the sale, a regional sports official said public money would support its academy and women’s team. The futsal side was also included, while total state support for the club was expected to fall from 3.5 billion tenge in 2025 to 1.9 billion tenge in 2026. A separate ministerial order effective July 25, 2025, imposed limits on public funding for professional teams. The ceilings are set in units of Kazakhstan’s monthly calculation index (MCI), which is adjusted annually. At 2026 levels, a football club can receive up to about $6.1 million a year in total. The ceiling is around $3.5 million for an ice hockey club. In other team sports, each men’s or women’s program can receive about $1.1 million. Football clubs competing in UEFA tournaments can receive an additional $1.9 million. Monthly salaries paid from public funds to first-team players and coaches are capped at about $4,700. Kazakhstan is also changing how senior jobs in state sports organizations are filled. Since September 2025, the heads of these organizations have been subject to a unified rotation procedure, while appointments to top posts have been made through open competition. Of 112 appointments since then, 86, or 76%, followed an open competitive process. Another part of the reform is the unified e-Sport platform, which will gather records of athletes and competitions from across Kazakhstan’s sports system, along with information on coaches and referees. The ministry plans to...

2 weeks ago

Central Asian Football

Dastan Satpayev Joins Burnley on Loan from Chelsea

One of Central Asia’s most promising young footballers will begin his English career outside the Premier League. Eighteen-year-old Kazakhstan international Dastan Satpayev has officially joined Chelsea and has immediately been sent on a season-long loan to Burnley, who play in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The loan runs until the end of the 2026/27 season, while Satpayev remains under contract with Chelsea until 2033. Chelsea agreed to sign the Kairat Almaty academy graduate in February 2025, but the international transfer could not be completed until Satpayev turned 18 under FIFA rules that generally prohibit international transfers of players under 18. He celebrated his 18th birthday on August 12. Before the transfer was formally completed, Kairat allowed him to join Chelsea for preseason preparations this summer. In his first public preseason appearance, against Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers, Satpayev scored his first goal for the London club as Chelsea won 6-4. Despite an encouraging preseason, Chelsea have opted to send the 18-year-old forward to the Championship for regular playing time, in a competition where clubs play 46 league matches per season. Burnley, based in Lancashire, is one of England’s oldest clubs and a founding member of the Football League. The club has twice been English champion, in 1921 and 1960, but now faces a more immediate task. After spending last season in the Premier League and finishing 19th, Burnley were relegated to the Championship and are seeking an immediate return to the top flight. Satpayev hopes to help the club in that effort. "I’m very pleased to be here. It’s a great opportunity for me in my career and a great club to show what I can do and help the team get back to where they belong," the Kazakhstan international said after the move. Despite his youth, Satpayev already has substantial senior experience. Before moving to England, he made 63 senior appearances in Kazakhstan, scoring 27 goals, appeared in the Champions League, and made his debut for the Kazakhstan national team. Kairat differs from many leading Kazakh clubs in its reliance on its own academy, and Satpayev has become its most prominent graduate in recent years. The Times of Central Asia has previously explored the Kairat’s youth development system in depth. Satpayev’s move is also significant in the broader Central Asian context. Until recently, players representing Central Asian countries were virtually absent from England’s leading clubs. Uzbekistan’s Abdukodir Khusanov became the first Uzbek player in Premier League history after joining Manchester City from French club Lens in January 2025. The defender was subsequently linked in Spanish media with a possible move to Real Madrid.

2 weeks ago

Data Center Valley

Kazakhstan Sets June 2027 Launch for First Data Center Valley Facility

Kazakhstan expects to launch the first facility at Data Center Valley, a large data center campus in the country’s northeast, in the summer of 2027. The government says the first 50 MW object now under construction is due to enter service in June 2027, while the site is ultimately planned to expand to as much as 1 GW. Earlier plans put the first 125 MW center in the first half of 2027; the latest statement does not explain how the 50 MW object fits into that figure. The project is aimed not only at domestic demand: Kazakhstan wants to attract foreign technology companies and is also exploring the possibility of hosting data belonging to other countries. The first data center is already under construction in the Pavlodar region, one of Kazakhstan’s main energy-producing areas. The main buildings are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2026, with commissioning work to be finished in May and the launch planned for June 2027. A 215 MW substation has been acquired to supply the site with electricity. The choice of region is primarily linked to access to electricity. The Pavlodar region is home to Ekibastuz, one of Kazakhstan’s largest power-generation centers, with a vast coal basin and major power plants. For data centers, particularly GPU clusters used for artificial intelligence, access to large and stable power supplies is critical. The stated 1 GW capacity is a long-term target rather than capacity already under construction. The campus is expected to expand gradually as customers are secured. Plans call for data centers, GPU clusters for AI, and cloud services to be hosted at the site. Among the project’s foreign partners is U.S.-based Firebird AI, which works with NVIDIA technologies. In April 2026, representatives of the two companies held talks in Astana on the development of AI infrastructure, high-performance computing, and data centers. Firebird AI later reached agreements on cooperation within the Data Center Valley project. The Times of Central Asia previously reported on plans to create a large computing facility in Kazakhstan using NVIDIA technologies. Technology companies may not be the only potential clients. The government is also developing the concept of a Data Embassy, which could allow foreign governments to store data in Kazakhstan while retaining legal sovereignty over it. Such a model already exists. Estonia established its data embassy in Luxembourg, where servers remain under Estonian state control and are used to store critical data and help maintain government digital services in the event of cyberattacks or other major crises. The two countries signed an agreement on the data embassy in 2017. Kazakhstan’s Data Embassy concept is still being developed. It is being considered alongside Data Center Valley, but the government has not said that foreign states’ sovereign data would necessarily be stored at the Ekibastuz campus. Data Center Valley itself is intended to host computing capacity and cloud services for international clients. Foreign investor interest in Kazakhstan’s data center market is not limited to this project. Singapore-based GK Hyperscale Ltd plans...

2 weeks ago

Transport Infrastructure

Kazakhstan’s Largest City to Bring Back Trams as Almaty LRT Targets 2027 Launch

Kazakhstan’s largest city plans to bring back tram service more than a decade after it was suspended. Almaty aims to launch the first light rail transit (LRT) line by the end of 2027, dedicating part of one of the city’s busiest transport corridors to the new system. For Almaty, the project is primarily an attempt to cope with growing pressure on its roads. The city had a population of about 2.37 million as of June 1, 2026, while many more people commute daily from the surrounding metropolitan area. Rail-based public transportation is currently limited to a single metro line, whose first section opened in 2011 after more than two decades of construction. The first phase of the LRT will run for 18.3 kilometers. Preparatory work is underway, including the removal of infrastructure from the former tram system and the relocation of utility networks. City authorities have said late 2027 remains the target for launching the line, although the timing could change depending on the manufacture and delivery of the trains. Unlike Astana’s LRT, the Almaty line will run entirely at street level, with no elevated sections planned. Trains will operate on dedicated tracks, including along Bauyrzhan Momyshuly and Tole Bi streets. On these sections, two center lanes will be allocated entirely to the LRT once the line begins operating. Before the main construction work can proceed, 375 sections of utility infrastructure must be relocated, including water, sewer, heating, gas, and electricity networks. This work is already creating additional traffic problems along Tole Bi, one of Almaty’s main thoroughfares. In some places, the roadway has been narrowed and traffic temporarily redirected into opposing lanes. The trains will be capable of speeds of up to 65–70 kilometers per hour, but their average operating speed will be considerably lower, at around 30–35 kilometers per hour. The main reason is that stops will be spaced about 700 meters apart on average. The line’s main advantage is expected to come less from the trains’ speed than from physically separating the LRT from regular road traffic. For Almaty, this marks a return to a familiar form of transportation. Trams first appeared in the city in 1937 and remained part of its transport system for almost eight decades. Service was suspended in 2015 following two serious accidents, and the network was never restored. The idea of replacing the old tram system with a modern LRT has been discussed for years. The project has repeatedly changed and been delayed, with different financing models and routes considered. The current line is part of a broader overhaul of Almaty’s transport system, which also includes expansion of the metro, bus rapid transit (BRT) corridors, and dedicated bus lanes. Under the city’s long-term master plan, the LRT network is expected to reach 76 kilometers by 2040. Kazakhstan has already gained its first experience operating this type of transport in the capital. Astana’s LRT began carrying passengers in 2026 after years of construction and repeated delays. During its first two weeks of full...

2 weeks ago

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