Kilometers-Long Truck Queues Formed on the Kazakh–Uzbek Border

Yesterday, an Orda.kz correspondent visited the Kazakh–Uzbek border to find out what was happening at the Qonysbayev customs post in the Turkistan region, where a massive traffic jam has formed. The line of trucks stretched for several kilometers.

We’ve been stuck here for 18 hours now. Everything is moving very slowly, their work is sluggish. This is causing us pain. It takes over a day to cross one border,
 said a driver transporting cargo from Belarus.

We stand like this for five or six kilometers. We don’t sleep. Sometimes we wait two or three days to get through. No one explains anything. We have to put up with it. Everything is faster at the Chinese border. But here they won’t let us through; it’s all about swearing and arguments,
 another driver complained.

Residents of the nearby Saryagash district are also frustrated by the constant congestion.

They say the noise, car horns, and chaos have become part of everyday life.

There’s no order at all. What discipline? There’s a parking lot there, and 20–30 people are crowded together. And that’s it, traffic is blocked. There are traffic jams every day. Only one direction is open. Then trucks start driving on the wrong side of the road. Especially those carrying livestock. They don’t want to stop, so they push into the wrong side of the road. That’s how the gridlock ends,
 said local resident Abdiraim Jamshid.

The Department of State Revenue for the Turkistan Region acknowledged the issue.

Similar kilometer-long queues were also observed yesterday at another crossing — Kazygurt — where dozens of trucks were backed up, all heading into Uzbekistan.
 
Original Author: Nazerke Yerkinbekkyzy