Depreciation of bus fleets reduced by 23% — Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development

At a press conference held at the government site, the Vice Minister of Industry and Infrastructure Development Berik Kamaliyev spoke about the measures taken to upgrade the bus fleet and commission of new passenger cars.

According to him, in 2009 the wear of passenger cars was 90%, in 2014 — 60%. Currently, the fleet of passenger cars is 2,146.

“Today we have reduced depreciation of the park from 65% to 42%, we plan to reduce it to 30% by the end of 2025. This year 63 cars were purchased, and by the end of the year — another 43 cars. Every 5 years we acquire 100 wagons. We have a big contract with Transmashholding JSC, we want the localization of cars to take place in Kazakhstan,” Kamaliyev said.

The vice minister also noted that the practice of subsidizing socially important routes will continue.

“We have social routes that are subsidized. We are currently preparing a law on rail transport, where the first issue will be subsidizing passenger traffic. A new structure of passenger locomotives will be created in KTZ,” the vice minister said.

As part of the second phase of the Nurly Zhol program, it is planned to allocate about 657 billion tenge of funds for the purchase of 600 passenger cars and about 144 domestic locomotives. These measures contribute to a significant reduction in the depreciation of the passenger fleet — up to 40% (-5% compared to 2020), traction rolling stock to 58% (-9% compared to 2020) and the main railway network (MZHS) to 49% (-5% to the level of 2020).

In turn, the deputy chairman of the Transport Committee of the Ministry of Industry and Infrastructure Development Kayriden Nurkenov said that work on updating the fleet of passenger cars is being systematically carried out. This year alone, more than 60 passenger cars were purchased, which are used on the routes Almaty – Mangistau, Nur-Sultan – Atyrau, and Nur-Sultan – Saryagash.

At the same time, Nurkenov noted that as part of the development of motor vehicles, a Comprehensive Plan for updating the fleet of passenger buses was adopted.

“The implementation of the Nurly Zhol program has reduced the total depreciation from 65% to 42%. Today, about 12 thousand buses operate on regular routes and, accordingly, more than half of the buses have been in operation for more than 7 years. This program just provides for updating,” Nurkenov said.

According to him, over 2 years about 615 buses were purchased, of which 45 were purchased in 2018, 570 were purchased in 2019, which operate on regular passenger routes.

In order to ensure the renewal of the bus fleet of the country's regions until 2022, it is planned to allocate funds from the republican budget in the amount of 128.5 billion tenge. The funds will be presented to carriers through the Development Bank of Kazakhstan (DBK) Leasing JSC within the framework of the program of soft loans on the conditions: 15% down payment, for 7 years with an interest rate of 7%.

This measure will make it possible to renew the city bus fleet by 5,000 cars by 2025, reduce the level of wear from 44% to 28%, and also maximize the production potential of domestic manufacturers.

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