The 25th meeting of the Kazakhstan-China Border Railroads Commission was held in Astana in August. The head of Kazakhstan’s national railway company Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), Askar Mamin, and the Chief of Urumchi Railway Shan’ Liczyun, signed a number of documents.
During the meeting, which was held from 22 – 26 August, the Parties discussed issues of further development of mutually beneficial cooperation.
In recent years, both sides have carried out extensive work to develop the international transport and increase the capacity of the Dostyk and Alashankou stations, and implement traffic volumes along the Altynkol – Khorgos stretch of railway line.
In 2015, the volume of cargo transported between Kazakhstan and China amounted to 7089 thousand tonnes. For seven months in 2016 4495 thousand tonnes of cargo were transported over the railway border Dostyk - Alashankou and Altynkol - Khorgos, which is 127 thousand tonnes more than in the same period of 2015. It is planned to transport up to 9 million tonnes of cargo by the end of this year, which is 23 percent higher than last year.
There is a positive dynamic in the growth of container traffic. In the seven months of this year 554 container trains travelled on the route through China - Europe - China through the territory of Kazakhstan, which is 2.5 times more if compared with the same period of 2015.
The sides expressed the readiness to increase container volumes in the direction of China - Europe China, by using the transport-transit potential of Kazakhstan.
At the meeting a decision was made on the volume of cargo to be transported across the railway border in 2017. The project amount is 11.5 million tonnes.
The Parties intend to work together to increase the cargo flows by improving the quality of services and organisation of straight-through trains on the route China - Kazakhstan - Europe - China; China - Kazakhstan - Central Asia - China, the development of new transportation projects, of container transport and logistics of freight.
Also discussed was a number of current issues relating to the creation of conditions for uninterrupted train movement through the railway border Dostyk-Alashankou and Altynkol-Khorgos, the specificity of certain types of goods transport, taking into account the traffic safety and security.
The Parties also discussed the organisation of plying passenger train Astana - Almaty - Urumchi from 1 May 2017 with a change at Altynkol station.
(Source: KTZ)
