BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 30. Kazakhstan has stepped up controls over the movement of oversized and heavy vehicles on major transport corridors and highways to protect road infrastructure and strengthen the country's transit potential, according to the Ministry of Transport.
Inspections are being carried out along key transport corridors and highways, including Western Europe-Western China, Astana-Petropavlovsk, Omsk-Pavlodar-Semey-Maikapshagai, and Kyzylorda-Zhezkazgan.
Particular attention is being paid to preventing vehicles from exceeding permitted weight limits, as overloading accelerates road surface deterioration and poses a threat to road safety.
The Ministry of Transport, together with members of Kazakhstan's Kurultai, is also working on legislative measures to increase liability for exceeding permitted weight limits and improve control mechanisms for heavy vehicles.
According to the ministry, efforts to strengthen transport controls and improve legislation to ensure the preservation of road infrastructure will continue.
The ministry indicated that the measures are being implemented in accordance with directives from President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, as outlined in his annual Address to the People of Kazakhstan on October 28.
In his address, Tokayev said Kazakhstan needed to become a full-fledged organizer of international freight flows. He stressed the importance of developing domestic logistics operators, establishing cargo consolidation and distribution centers, and creating new production facilities and trading platforms around transport hubs.
The president also identified the creation of a network of modern railways and highways connecting the country's territory and strengthening its transit potential as a strategic objective.
Tokayev called for support for domestic road freight operators, noting that more than half of road transit through Kazakhstan is handled by foreign carriers. He said the government would take appropriate measures to address the issue, adding that the main goal was to increase citizens' incomes by strengthening the country's transit potential.
The president also stressed the need to ensure high-quality construction of national and local roads.
"We face an urgent task: ensuring high-quality construction of all roads, both national and local," Tokayev said.
He criticized central and local executive bodies for shifting responsibility for road construction and allowing the issue to remain unresolved.
"Therefore, I instruct the Government, through the Ministry of Transport, to oversee all roads, whether national roads, which account for around 26% of the total, or local roads administered by akimats. Let me repeat: we need very high-quality roads. References to the quality of bitumen or crushed stone will not be accepted," Tokayev added.
He also said Kazakhstan needed to complete the high-quality reconstruction of all road border checkpoints in 2027, noting that progress in this area had been slow until recently.
Earlier, Deputy Minister of Transport Maksat Kaliakparov said at a government meeting that transit cargo volumes passing through Kazakhstan increased by 13.1% year-on-year in the first nine months of 2026. During the reporting period, rail freight transportation reached 241.7 million tonnes, up 3% year-on-year, while road freight transportation totaled 270.4 million tonnes, an increase of 5.6%.
