Almaty Railway Bypass

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The proposed IFC financing is for an A Loan of up to US$ 200 million to Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Joint Stock Company (KTZ JSC) (“KTZ” or the “Company”), national transport and logistics holding company that manages the railway infrastructure and operates freight and passenger services in the Republic of Kazakhstan (RoK). The financing is for the construction and operation of five train stations and auxiliary structures as defined below for passenger and freight railway service of the Almaty Railroad Bypass (the “Project”) which is part of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route and the Middle Corridor. The project is a greenfield development with brownfield station rehabilitation components, and its footprint comprises a 300 m wide Right of Way (RoW) (i.e., 150 m on either side of the line) at the train stations, a 160 m wide RoW (80 m on either side of the line) for the construction of railway sections between the stations (including construction sites) and with a 10 m railway line footprint included for the other parts of the railway line. The project will include construction and operation of (i) 75 km railway line, with a total track length of 130 km, between Kazibek Bek and Zhetygen stations, across the districts of Talgar, Ilyisky, Karasai and Zhambyl districts and Alatou city in the Almaty region; (ii) three new stations at Sorbulak, Moyinkum and Zhana Arna, and rehabilitation of Kazibek Bek and Zhetygen stations; (iii) two 500/220 kV substations connecting the project to 220 kV overhead lines supplied by the Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Company (KEGOC); (iv) a 73 km single-circuit 10 kV underground line that powers auxiliary systems along the entire length of the alignment, and 1.9 km 220 kV overhead transmission line connecting the substations; (iv) auxiliary structures including 59 culverts, 13 bridges, 11 level crossings, six cattle crossings, five railway overpasses and a vehicular overpass; and (v) depots, maintenance and servicing facilities, workers accommodation and other supporting infrastructure at the stations and diversion of 18 Overhead Transmission Lines (OHTL) which are operated by KEGOC.Large scale earthwork activities are required (6.2 million cubic meters) and there are 14 state owned quarry sites (176.6 ha in total) identified for the abstraction of soil and sand that are mostly located outside the RoW. The distances of the quarry sites from the nearest residential areas vary between 4 km and 29 km. Crushed stone supply for track ballast and pavement base is sourced from Malaysary station, approximately 120km from the construction site. Concrete for stations and depots will be prepared on site at temporary concrete batching plants and offsite for sleepers with the closest approximately 60 km from Almaty. The rail tracks will be prefabricated and supplied by local factories.Temporary and mobile workers accommodation camps are being established by sub-contractors along the railway RoW based on the locations of ongoing construction works. KTZ commenced construction enabling works in November 2023. The Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) Contractor was appointed on March 1, 2024.  The overall construction duration is estimated to be two years. At the time of project disclosure, 40% of the construction works were complete. The new railway line is scheduled to start operating by the first quarter of 2026.