Regional administrations in Kazakhstan have been given just seven days to approve three-year plans to improve the quality of local roads, a decision reached at a nationwide meeting at the Ministry of Transport, the website infohub.kz reports.
The documents must cover the entire cycle of road work: identifying priority sections, preparing design documentation, construction and repair, quality control of completed work, and subsequent road maintenance.
The tough requirement was announced by First Deputy Prime Minister Nurlibek Nalibayev. It followed criticism from Kazakh President Qasym-Jomart Toqaev over the state of road infrastructure.
The main changes in the approach to repairs concern contractor liability: if defects appear on a repaired road within the established warranty period, contractors will be required to fix them entirely at their own expense.
In addition, the regions are moving away from patching random sections every year toward systematic three-year planning. The plans must cover every stage, from diagnosing the actual condition of roads and drafting designs to construction, quality control and subsequent maintenance of the road network.
Nalibayev stressed that local executive bodies must accept completed facilities only if they fully comply with standards.
The total length of local roads in Kazakhstan is about 70,000 kilometers. Under the new three-year plans, the authorities intend to bring 32,000 kilometers of the local road network up to standard.
Earlier, Kursiv wrote that in September President Toqaev instructed the government and regional administrations to pay particular attention to the quality of roads in cities and beyond. He made the statement while addressing participants in the Taza Qazaqstan campaign.
The head of state called the state of the roads an unresolved problem. He said measures would be taken in cases of violations of the law.
"This is our Achilles' heel, and we must admit it. No one has been able to solve this problem (which is shameful in itself) or simply did not want to, and that is already sabotage. We will take measures with the full force of the law," Toqaev said.
The president also demanded that urbanism centers in all regions step up their work without delay. According to him, they should help shape a coherent architectural image of cities.