Rail border crossings between Kazakhstan and China are heavily congested. As a result, Kazakhstan halted container and grain trains going to the Chinese border on two occasions earlier this year. The situation has become untenable, and now the two countries want to open an entirely new border crossing.

Kazakhstan and China are planning to open the new border crossing by 2027, reports Kazakh publication LS. It will be located close to the town of Bakhty, at the far end of a new rail line that Kazakhstan is building. That line will have a total length of 272 kilometres, and the entire project is projected to cost around 1 billion euros.

Overloaded border crossings

The border crossing is planned to have a throughput capacity of 20 million tonnes annually. Its aim is to decongest the Dostyk and Atynkol border crossings, which are currently overloaded, according to LS.

Already twice this year, Kazakhstan has had to implement a temporary stop on trains heading to China because border crossings were overflowing. In April, the country put a stop on grain trains on the way to China, and in early September container trains were halted.