November 23th, 2022, Mayor of Almaty Mr. Yerbolat Dosaev received me at a personal meeting, based on pre-hierarchically organized meetings with Deputy Mayor Mr. Askar Amrin on November 4th and with Head of Urban Mobility Department Mr. Gani Murzakhanov on October 7th.
Mr. Yerbolat Dosaev reassured myself that projected Almaty LRT tram line will be launched for sure by 2027, talking about some details of his vision for the project development:
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Mr. Mayor is tasked by Government to show first results of the project ideally as early as 2025, which would need quick start already in 2023.
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LRT project paper work development (feasibility study) will be completed in April 2023, and project has already been included in the «Almaty city development program until 2025 and medium-term prospects until 2030».
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Paper work project development (feasibility study) will be prepared by a private company at its own expense.
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Tram line route will be changed significantly from the original scheme, in its part of the exit from the eastern end of the city to «Halyk Arena». However, the main frame of passage along Tole-Bi Street remains same.
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It is planned to build a low-floor tram line without an overhead catenary contact network, but to use contact third rail on the ground, or mobile power supply (author - decision on electric traction type, like supercapacitor, batteries, ground third rail, hydrogen or classic overhead contact network, has not yet been taken)
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Modernization of electric traction substations to power tram and trolleybus lines will be completed as part of full revamping project of trolleybus contact network and supply of new 200 trolleybuses in 2023-2024.
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Railway gauge standard for the tram of 1520 mm or 1435 mm is not defined yet. (author - the gauge standard determines advantage for Russian and Belarusian tram suppliers in the 1520 mm. standard, or for European, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Turkish suppliers in the 1435 mm. standard)
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Railway infrastructure construction of the line itself, stations and tram depot are supposed to be carried out according to the usual Government procurement procedures, known as «Budget Investment Project» (BIP), when civil works could be covered by any licensed Kazakh company with railway tracks laying experience. (author – EPC contract – Engineering, procurement and construction)
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International part of the rolling stock supply of modern trams can be processed in analogy with the supply of foreign imported equipment for Almaty heat power generation plant of TEZ-2 modernization project.
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The budget limit of the City municipality for annual financing of the LRT project may be around 35-45 billion tenge, or 135 billion tenge of capital expenses within three years of construction. (author - annual budget of Almaty municipality is approximately 1.2 trillion tenge, and the cost of two-kilometers metro station construction is around 60 billion tenge)
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Contracts with Almaty municipality should have to be closed in tenge to eliminate currency risks, since the Akimat's budget revenues are collected in national currency.
During the meeting Mr. Dosaev mentioned that he was aware about postponed international tender under local PPP law, announced in August 2018, where technical solutions from 9 participants had already been submitted, and 4 major international consortiums were successfully prequalified:
Additionally, to the tram project, Mr. Mayor spoke about other city transport projects, like metro extension, Olympics in Almaty, reallocation of university campuses to the suburbs, purchase of new trolleybuses, modernization of electric traction substations, etc.
As agreed on April 1, 2023, at the next public session with residents of Almaty, I will ask Mr. Mayor directly about progress been done under LRT project after six months.
