OREANDA-NEWS. January 27, 2014. "The long-term plans to create a metropolitan area in the cities of Astana and Almaty until 2030 will be developed until the end of this year," First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan Bakytzhan Sagintayev.

"At the moment we have started interregional plans data updating. In particular, a method for identification of the boundaries, population size and agglomeration parameters in the cities of Astana and Almaty, for study of planning and forecasting their development will be developed," B.Sagintaev said at the meeting of national coalition of democratic forces "Kazakhstan-2050" in Astana.

According to him, the Government established a Commission on the development of Astana and Almaty agglomeration, the interregional plans for the development of these agglomerations by 2020 were accepted.

"There will also be developed a comprehensive plan for the development of small towns and main villages within the zone of agglomeration. A project of regional development united program based on seven sectoral programs that are currently available has been drafted at the present time. The issues on infrastructure development and life support of agglomeration have already been considered," First Deputy Prime Minister of Kazakhstan reported.

"Development of incentive program of cars recycling for contribution to renewal of transport park in a shorter time will require additional budgetary resources. So here, we will discuss this issue thoroughly," B. Sagintaev said at the meeting of national coalition of democratic forces "Kazakhstan-2050" in Astana.

According to Vice Prime Minister, 80% of motor transport is used in the country for more than 10 years today, and private cars account for about 70% of traffic in large cities.
"There are issues with the quality of fuel, but I think that this issue will be resolved after the completion of reconstruction and modernization of refineries in Atyrau and Pavlodar," B. Sagintaev added.

According to him, the use of environmentally friendly transport in Kazakhstan is one of today's most pressing issues.

"There are questions of road infrastructure, therefore, an interagency working group that will develop proposals for the development of alternative forms of transport and related infrastructure is being created to solve all these problems," Vice Premier summed up.