"There is no planning": Abylkair Skakov held a meeting on the situation on the Pavlodar-Nur-Sultan highway

Due to a strong blizzard that covered the highways in Pavlodar region at the end of last week, 8 out of 9 sections on republican highways and 12 out of 13 on regional highways had to be closed. More than 200 cars have accumulated at 4 checkpoints, and the same number have stopped in the snow. 76 cars had to be rescued from the snow drifts, in which there were more than 150 people.

⠀The head of the Emergency Situations Department, Yernur Utegenov, identified three main problems that led to such a situation: the lack of snow retention on certain sections of the roads, the untimely notification of the population about the closure of the highways and the road workers' lack of a stock of heavy equipment for such cases.

⠀“Today, there are 14 bottlenecks on the Pavlodar - Nur-Sultan highway in the direction of the capital, another 9 in the opposite direction, their total length is about 10 kilometers,” added Akylbek Kabyldin, head of the regional branch of KazAvtoZhol NC JSC. - Within two days we plan to put the road in order, but tomorrow they promise a storm again. If it doesn’t interfere, we will fully provide travel.

⠀With regard to snow retention, the regional branch of the national company "KazAvtoZhol" referred to the lack of appropriate funding from the joint stock company.

⠀- Almost everyone underestimated the situation and literally left people on the roads for a day, although everyone had a weather forecast in their hands, - summed up the head of the region. “There is no local planning for such situations. Akims had to prepare heavy equipment in advance, when, as we had to urgently request vehicles at our large enterprises. In rural areas, agricultural producers have heavy equipment that could be used to clear roads.

⠀Abylkair Skakov instructed to develop a scheme for connecting all special equipment from economic entities, large enterprises and peasant farms and to strengthen patrolling at the exits of settlements in case of worsening weather and visibility on the roads. In addition, the akim drew attention to the complaints of residents, who reported that they could not get through to the rescuers at 112 - an official investigation should be carried out on this fact.

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Press service of the akim of Pavlodar region

Photo by Valery Bugaev