The report of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) for the Almaty-Khorgos project is almost finalized and will be sent to the World Bank for their approval, the Environmental Specialists report.

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The first EIAs for the project Almaty-Khorgos were prepared by the Road Designers in 2008-2009 and these were approved by the Kazakhstan State Environmental Institution. However, they were not in accordance with international standards. At the present time, specialists from the Project Management Consultants are working on the revisions of the EIA. The specialists have visited several times all the Rayon through which the road will pass. They have examined the site of the proposed road and have reviewed and evaluated the projected environmental and social impact of the construction and operation of the road in the area, in particular the impact on those people living near the proposed road.

Reference: Highway Almaty-Khorgos will start from the Kapchagai highway, which is north-east of Almaty city, and pass along a new route 2-5 km to the north and in parallel to the existing road Almaty-Shelek. 10 km before Shelek village the highway will pass onto the existing road and use the same route till Shelek River, after which it will continue its direction partly along a new route and partly along the existing road Massak-Tashkarasu to the east until Charyn village. Passing to the north of Tashkarasu village, the highway will join the existing road 10 km to the north of Tashkarasu and follow the existing road until the Ili River. A new bridge is planned to cross the Ili River parallel to the old one and will be two lanes wide. After the bridge across Ili River the highway will go along existing road and after 10 km it will turn to the east and use a new route till the border with China.

The specialists have determined environmental and social consequences of the road works; developed recommendations regarding impact on the environment and made proposals to reduce any severe impacts. In particular the natural resources of the region have been studied, i.e. flora and fauna.

The main advantage of the project is that the designed highway by passes by all the settlements, and the National Parks Charyn and Altyn-Emel, and does not impact on hospitals, , hunting grounds, and cultural heritage. The route mainly, passes through steppes, pastures and some irrigated agricultural fields, except for group of important burial mounds at 8 km from the start of the highway. Archeological excavations and investigations are planned for this section before commencement of any works within the project.

The EIA Report, when approved by the World Bank, will be published on the website of the Ministry of Transport and Communications www.mtc.gov.kz [2] and the website of the project “Western Europe – Western China” www.europe-china.kz [3]. In addition, one can see this Report in Rayon Akimats offices and central libraries of Ili, Talgar, Enbekshikazakh, Uigur and Panfilov Rayons (villages Energeticheskiy, Talgar, Issyk, Chunja and Zharkent). Public consultation meetings are planned in each Rayon centre 30 days after the publication of the EIA Report. This consultation will be organized by Almaty Regional Department for Roads with the participation of the Environmental Specialists. The aim of the consultation will be to consider all comments and proposals, made by the community, and to incorporate these into the EIA Report and design decisions.