Almaty plans to completely stop rail deliveries of coal to depots located within the city limits and to finish terminating lease agreements for existing sites by the end of 2026. The city administration's press service announced this following a meeting of the interdepartmental commission on environmental issues, which reviewed progress on relocating coal depots from Almaty to the Almaty Region, infohub.kz reports.
"By the end of 2026, it is planned to stop coal deliveries by rail to city depots and to complete the termination of lease agreements for existing sites," the city administration's press service quoted agency representatives as saying.
At the same time, the city is continuing to convert businesses from solid fuel to gas. According to the administration, 1,879 of 2,395 facilities have already switched to gas, while 516 are still using coal and other types of solid fuel.
The gasification rate in Almaty's private sector stands at 99.6%. The agency explained that this figure reflects the technical feasibility of connecting homes to natural gas.
All of this work is being carried out as part of measures to reduce air pollution and gradually introduce a low-emission zone (LEZ).