New Towns Needed to Cope with Overspill
New Towns Needed to Cope with Overspill
The development of satellite towns designated to solve urban overcrowding in Kazakstan will only be effective if the government invests in good public transport links, according to NBCentralAsia observers.
During a February 8 meeting in Almaty on urban development, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said he was concerned about the rising population in Kazakstan’s larger cities, especially Almaty, the country’s financial capital.
The president is proposing to develop existing satellite towns that will function as large suburbs to solve the problem of urban overcrowding. He has called on researchers to determine the maximum number of people that Almaty and Astana can sustain while continuing to provide adequate environmental and sanitary conditions.
Observers have welcomed the proposal but stress the importance of developing good public transport links in order to prevent pollution from getting any worse while allowing people to travel to work. Currently, neither Almaty, nor Astana has the infrastructure to cope with such expansion.
Almaty based NBCentralAsia analyst Eduard Poletaev suggests the government “develop a system of suburban electric trains and an underground network first”.
At the moment, most people in Almaty travel by car and pollution levels are rising. According to some estimates, there are around 500,000 cars in the city populated by 1.5 million people.
Exhaust fumes linger over Almaty because it is a mountain valley, which means that there’s not enough breeze to clear the air. But motorists won’t be leaving their cars at home until the train network has been built.
The mayor of Almaty Imangali Tasmagambetov has indicated that construction of the underground line, which began during the Soviet era, will be completed by around 2009.
Satellite town development cannot begin before 2010 or 2011, so in the meantime, the cities near Almaty such as Kapshagai, Esik and Talgar will simply have to bear the brunt of Almaty’s overspill.
Despite the positive noises around Nazarbaev’s proposal, some commentators believe that simply shifting city workers to nearby towns does not solve the wider problem of increasing numbers of rural migrants flocking to Almaty and Astana.
“Internal migration should be regulated first,” said sociologist Gaziz Nasyrov. “This problem can be solved only by raising the standard of living in rural areas. People go to Almaty and Astana to earn money because they have no prospects in the regions.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
During a February 8 meeting in Almaty on urban development, President Nursultan Nazarbaev said he was concerned about the rising population in Kazakstan’s larger cities, especially Almaty, the country’s financial capital.
The president is proposing to develop existing satellite towns that will function as large suburbs to solve the problem of urban overcrowding. He has called on researchers to determine the maximum number of people that Almaty and Astana can sustain while continuing to provide adequate environmental and sanitary conditions.
Observers have welcomed the proposal but stress the importance of developing good public transport links in order to prevent pollution from getting any worse while allowing people to travel to work. Currently, neither Almaty, nor Astana has the infrastructure to cope with such expansion.
Almaty based NBCentralAsia analyst Eduard Poletaev suggests the government “develop a system of suburban electric trains and an underground network first”.
At the moment, most people in Almaty travel by car and pollution levels are rising. According to some estimates, there are around 500,000 cars in the city populated by 1.5 million people.
Exhaust fumes linger over Almaty because it is a mountain valley, which means that there’s not enough breeze to clear the air. But motorists won’t be leaving their cars at home until the train network has been built.
The mayor of Almaty Imangali Tasmagambetov has indicated that construction of the underground line, which began during the Soviet era, will be completed by around 2009.
Satellite town development cannot begin before 2010 or 2011, so in the meantime, the cities near Almaty such as Kapshagai, Esik and Talgar will simply have to bear the brunt of Almaty’s overspill.
Despite the positive noises around Nazarbaev’s proposal, some commentators believe that simply shifting city workers to nearby towns does not solve the wider problem of increasing numbers of rural migrants flocking to Almaty and Astana.
“Internal migration should be regulated first,” said sociologist Gaziz Nasyrov. “This problem can be solved only by raising the standard of living in rural areas. People go to Almaty and Astana to earn money because they have no prospects in the regions.”
(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)
