The contract to deliver operation and management (O&M) services for the Big Almaty Ring Road (BAKAD) in Kazakhstan was recently secured by Egis, the Paris-based consulting engineer. The BAKAD is a recently completed project. It forms a 66-kilometre bypass route connecting two international highways: the Silk Way and the Almaty-Karaganda-Astana-Petropavlovsk road.
Owned by the BAKAD public-private partnership (PPP), the road bypasses Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan. It is also situated approximately 25 kilometres away from the city centre. Under the 15-year contract starting this month, Egis will be responsible for routine maintenance, including winter maintenance, free-flow toll collection, incident management, back-office support, and asset management strategy.
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The Big Almaty Ring Road Project
Renaud Beziade, Egis’ Chief Executive (Consulting & Operations), thanked the operating company BARR for their trust and partnership on the Big Almaty Ring Road project. He highlighted the alignment between the ring road and Egis’ corporate goals. Particularly he emphasised their expertise in free-flow tolling operations. Egis already provides engineering services in Kazakhstan through its permanent office in Astana. Thus, it enables them to scale up to efficiently deliver the required infrastructure management services.
The BAKAD PPP was established in collaboration with the Kazakh government. This is also with advisory support from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Finance Corporation. The BAKAD consortium consists of Turkish contractors Makyol and Alarko, each with a 33.3% share, Korean firm SK Ecoplant with another 33.3% share, and Korean operator KEC with a 0.1% share. The operating company BARR comprises Makyol and Alarko with 25% each, SK Ecoplant with 10%, and KEC with 40% ownership.
