Big Almaty Ring Road construction to start in 2018 – Investment & Devpt Ministry
"The construction of the Big Almaty Ring Motor Road will be based on public-private partnership. For now, we have found the investors from Turkey and South Korea. They are ready to invest over KZT 150 billion in the construction of the road. We are completing the signing of the agreement. The construction will commence in March," Satzhan Ablaliyev said after an extended meeting of the Senate Committee on Economic Policy, Innovation Development and Entrepreneurship.
Initially, the construction of the BAKAD was estimated at KZT350 billion. However, the Ministry of Investment and Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan recalculated the cost of the Big Almaty Ring Road construction. At present, the cost is 150 billion tenge.
It should be noted that the BAKAD is one of the most long-awaited and complex projects. Its first general layout was approved in 2002. The stretch of the future highway is 66 km, it will run across three districts of the Almaty region: Karasay, Ili, and Talgar. It was supposed to be a six-lane highway with a posted speed limit of 140 km/h that would cross 19 roads and 2 railways. It is planned to construct 7 road interchanges and 13 elevated roads there.
According to experts, the road operation will greatly improve the environmental conditions in Almaty by freeing of many kilometers of traffic jams. It is assumed that all transit trucks and passenger vehicles that enter the metropolis will bypass it along this ring road. Meanwhile, due to the lack of finance in the national budget, the important infrastructure construction was repeatedly postponed. In 2006, the Kazakh Government included the BAKAD in the list of the projects proposed for implementation under concession. After that, no concessioner company had been found over several tenders.