Astana's first light rail transit (LRT) system is nearing completion.
Officials said the light rail system marks a leap forward in urban mobility for Kazakhstan's capital city.
Built under Chinese standards and engineered for extreme temperatures, it's set to enhance connectivity across the sprawling city.
Astana is home to over one and a half million people, and by some global standards, it's not even considered to be a large city. But the city's area, which spreads far and wide, both facilitates and requires transportation systems like the LRT system, which spans over 22 kilometers.
Built by China's train manufacturer CRRC Tangshan, the trains will reach 80 kilometers per hour during operation on the route.
The reinforced track components were built for low temperatures of around minus 40 degrees Celsius in winter.
"The Chinese builders and engineers made a lot of technological innovations targeting the cold regions, making the trains and tracks of the LRT system able to adapt to extremely cold weather in Astana. This project has laid a good foundation and set a good example for expanding urban rail transit projects to other Central Asian countries amid the Belt and Road Initiative," said Zhou Haiwei, general manager of China Railway Asia-Europe Construction Investment.
A test run of the first train is scheduled for September, with full service expected in early 2026.
"There are many advantages. The city is new, young, and is actively developing. The city's population is growing very quickly, so the emergence of a new type of transport is a great opportunity for city residents. And I would like to repeat that it would help the passengers comfortably reach any point along the route," said Zhenis Kassymbek, mayor of Astana.
"The track length of the first line is 22 kilometers. There are 18 stations. There will be 14 trains operating on the line, and each train is capable of carrying 650 people. The train interval will be three to four minutes," said Asylbek Duisebayev, chairman of the Board of City Transportation Systems.
Astana's first light rail system nears completion
China's Central Archives on Saturday released a batch of newly declassified Soviet documents related to Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in World War II, adding new and compelling evidence to the historical record of Japan's notorious germ warfare crimes.
The archive copies, which China received from Russia, include trial records of Unit 731 members, investigation reports on the unit's crimes, and internal official correspondence of Soviet authorities, covering the period running from May 11, 1939 to Dec. 25, 1950.
During World War II, the Japanese invading forces established a biological warfare network across multiple Asian countries, with Unit 731 located in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, serving as a top-secret base for biological weapons and human experiments.
At least 3,000 people from China, the Soviet Union and other countries and regions were used in human experiments conducted by Unit 731.
"This year marks the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War. At this significant moment, the Central Archives of China has released the declassified Soviet interrogation files of Unit 731, which were transferred to China by Russia," said Zhao Cong, director of the Department of International Exchange and Cooperation of the Central Archives.
According to China's Central Archives, the archives provided by Russia reveal the Soviet investigation process during the early stage of the Khabarovsk War Crimes Trials in 1949, identifying more than 200 individuals linked to the crimes of Unit 731, and ultimately singling out 12 war criminals for public trials.
These individuals confessed to violating international conventions and to preparing and carrying out biological warfare.
According to Zhao, the newly released archives form a clear and comprehensive chain of evidence that lays out the full organizational structure of Unit 731, its capacity to research, develop, and produce biological weapons, and its horrific crimes, including human experiments.
"The archives provided by Russia, together with the preserved Unit 731 sites and existing evidence in China, reinforce and corroborate one another, further confirming the crimes committed by the Japanese militarists during their war of aggression against China. The materials include interrogations of Unit 731 personnel, interrogation notes, and personal testimonies," she noted.
Experts believe that these archives provide concrete historical evidence of Japan's biological warfare crimes in China, further confirming that Japan's biological warfare was a top-down, state-organized war crime and offering irrefutable proof for restoring historical truth.
China releases historical evidence from Russia on notorious Japanese Unit 731
