Kazakhstan is actively developing the "Unified Drone Infrastructure" project initiated by Kazakhtelecom JSC. To date, 75 unmanned aerial vehicles are involved, covering Astana, Shymkent, as well as Akmola, Atyrau, Kyzylorda, Mangystau regions and the Zhetysu region, reports infohub.kz.
The key principle of the initiative is to replace one-off launches with a permanent telecom infrastructure. Drones conduct regular flights along predetermined routes, capture photo and video data, and transmit it in real time to operational headquarters. This allows responsible agencies to respond instantly to flood threats, identify illegal dumps, monitor housing and utilities, urban development, fire safety, and traffic rule compliance.
The largest cluster currently operates in the Akmola region. Over the entire project period, 22 drones in this region have made more than 2,500 sorties to monitor 19 flood-prone villages. In addition to water monitoring, algorithms helped detect 60 waste accumulation sites, 25 unauthorized dumps, 35 areas with heat loss, and 5 illegal construction sites.
In Shymkent, 16 drones are deployed in cooperation with the city akimat. They conduct daily flyovers of all five districts: Turan, Abay, Al-Farabi, Enbekshinsky, and Karatau. As a result of inspections, 107 problematic facts were recorded, with 60 unauthorized dumps prevailing, especially near the local airport. Specialists also checked 28 construction sites, identified 15 cases of waste burning and fires, 3 dark areas without night lighting, and one land violation.
Infrastructure development continues, and in August the Mangystau region joined the project with five drones. In just six days of operation, 79 incidents were recorded, including 47 environmental violations, traffic violations, 7 construction inspections, as well as monitoring of beaches and fire hotspots.
Centralized data collection already ensures a rapid response to urban and regional challenges across the country.