Over 10 million trips: Almaty–Qonaev becomes Kazakhstan's busiest toll road

Drivers made 68.3 million trips on Kazakhstan's toll roads in the first ten months of 2026, with nearly half of that volume concentrated on just five routes, infohub.kz reports. KazAvtoZhol, the national highway operator, published a ranking of 28 tolled sections of the country's national roads.

The Almaty–Qonaev route was the busiest toll road in the country, recording 10.8 million trips from January through October.

Second place went to the Shymkent–Uzbekistan border road with more than 8 million trips. The Shymkent–Taraz road rounded out the top three with 5.6 million trips.

The rest of the top five comprised Taraz–Kainar with 4,964,599 trips and Shymkent–Kyzylorda with 4,061,676.

Together, these five routes accounted for 33.5 million trips, or 49.1% of all toll road traffic during the reporting period.

Heavy traffic was also recorded on roads in the central and northern regions. The Astana–Temirtau section saw almost 3.7 million trips, Astana–Shchuchinsk 3.4 million, and Qonaev–Taldykorgan about 3.2 million.

The top ten also included the Taraz bypass (Kainar–Shymkent) and the Shchuchinsk–Kokshetau section.

According to KazAvtoZhol, the ten busiest toll sections accounted for 48.8 million trips, or 71.5% of the total.

The full ranking of Kazakhstan's toll roads for January–October 2026: Almaty–Qonaev — 10,834,980; Shymkent–Uzbekistan border — 8,033,519; Shymkent–Taraz — 5,652,809; Taraz–Kainar — 4,964,599; Shymkent–Kyzylorda — 4,061,676; Astana–Temirtau — 3,698,981; Astana–Shchuchinsk — 3,407,291; Qonaev–Taldykorgan — 3,193,009; Taraz bypass (Kainar–Shymkent) — 2,526,954; Shchuchinsk–Kokshetau — 2,446,971; Kostanay–Denisovka — 2,307,727; Almaty–Khorgos — 2,262,135; Astana–Pavlodar — 2,177,036; Karaganda–Balkhash–Burylbaytal — 1,749,169; Kyzylorda–Aralsk — 1,518,380; Kokshetau–Petropavl — 1,517,210; Pavlodar–Semey–Kalbatau — 1,135,232; Aktobe–Russian border (Orenburg) — 1,133,840; Shu–Burylbaytal — 945,933; Kostanay–Russian border (Troitsk) — 789,421; Kandyagash–Makat — 784,775; Pavlodar–Russian border (Omsk) — 751,516; Oral–Russian border (Samara) — 573,394; Taldykorgan–Ust-Kamenogorsk — 500,670; Oral–Russian border (Saratov) — 487,254; Usharal–Dostyk — 472,465.