Kazakhstan has commenced the construction of an 800-kilometer highway that will directly connect a border checkpoint with China to a port on the Caspian Sea. This project aims to integrate a road network into the Central Asian freight route that bypasses Russia.
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced the start of construction for three segments of the highway during a virtual ceremony on August 3 in Astana. He stated that once completed, the highway will reduce the freight transport distance from China to Europe by 1,000 kilometers and shorten delivery times by up to three days.
The new segments will run from Mangystau's Beineu to Sekseuil. Sekseuil is a village located at the northeastern tip of the Aral Sea, and the Kazakh government and state media still refer to it by its Soviet-era name, Saksalusk. President Tokayev described the highway as a "golden bridge" connecting China and Europe.
On the same day, construction also began on the expansion and reconstruction of the Kyzylorda-Sekseuil and Ulgaiysyn-Sekseuil segments, which together span 774 kilometers. The work will be carried out by Kazakh companies, creating over 10,000 jobs, and the government anticipates that the opening of these three roads will increase freight traffic by 2.5 times, reaching 13.2 million tons annually. The completion deadline is set for 2029.
The routes being connected are officially named the International Trans-Caspian Transport Route, commonly referred to as the Middle Corridor. This route runs from western China through Kazakhstan, crosses the Caspian Sea by rail ferry, and continues through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey to Europe. A key feature of this route is that it does not pass through Russian territory.
According to Kazakhstan's Ministry of Transport, freight traffic along this route has increased more than fivefold over the past seven years, rising from 800,000 tons to 4.5 million tons. Last year, container traffic was approximately 77,000 TEUs, and the ministry aims to reach 300,000 TEUs by 2029.
The World Bank evaluated this route in 2023, suggesting necessary investments and regulatory improvements to triple the freight volume and halve transport times by 2030. It also highlighted infrastructure and logistics bottlenecks in Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. This is a significant reason why the route currently falls short of the volumes previously handled by Russian railways.
The Beineu segment has already been included in a project supported by the European Union (EU). Aleshkha Shimkichi, the EU Ambassador to Kazakhstan, stated during a meeting on the Trans-Caspian Transport Route in Astana on June 3 that the EU's €30 million transport support project includes preparations for the modernization of Aktau Port and the comprehensive improvement of the Beineu-Sekseuil road.
Funding for the project has not yet been finalized. The Kazakh Prime Minister's office reported that international financial institutions and the Kazakhstan Development Bank are currently conducting bidding processes for the Beineu, Kyzylorda, and Ulgaiysyn projects, with a requirement to use domestic materials and labor. The total project cost has not been disclosed by either the presidential office or the government.
President Tokayev first proposed the Beineu road at a meeting in Aktau in 2021, followed by technical investigations, feasibility studies, and funding efforts. The state news agency Kazinform quoted Yerlan Karin, the first deputy head of the presidential office, stating that this segment will pass through areas that previously lacked road infrastructure, noting that Kazakhstan's main transport network has historically only run along a north-south axis.
On the same day, President Tokayev also outlined the overall road policy. There are eight international transport corridors passing through Kazakhstan, with over 35,000 vehicles crossing daily. Road freight transport volume has doubled in the past five years, with last year's revenue in this sector reaching 1.5 trillion tenge, approximately $3.2 billion. Last year, 13,000 kilometers of new and repaired roads were completed, of which 6,000 kilometers were opened to traffic.
Kazakhstan plans to modernize 37 border inspection posts by 2028, with construction already underway at 14 of them. President Tokayev remarked that this effort marks the first such initiative since the country gained independence in 1991.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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