№ 5 (49), 2011 - KazEnergy

azakhstani capital Astana(from Kazakh«capital city») is youngerthan Kazakh state.In spite of it the popularityof modern city increasingday to day. Thehistory of new administrativecentre of theKby EnergyRepublic begins fromFocus1997 three years afterthe country’s leaderNursultan Nazarbayev proposed to movegovernmental hub from Almaty, situatedon foothills of the Tian Shan mountainrange in the South.The time has shown that PresidentNursultan Nazarbayev had taken a wisedecision that contributed a lot to the furtherprosperity of independent Kazakhstan.Undoubtedly, Head of the Nation isa key driver for transformation of Astanainto dynamically developed Megapolis.Once, President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedevsaid that Nazarbayev «has giventhis city not only his work but also hissoul»...Within less than 15-years period Astanahas been changed hugely, from thenprovincialtown to «the capital from zero»– modern political and economical nodeof Kazakhstan that blends Western architectureand features of the true East.As it is commonly recognized, Astana becamethe Central Asia's pre-eminent city.Today, the young capital is growing rapidlyas the key administrative and a majorbusiness centre of Kazakhstan. Itspopulation has tripled since the move,to over 700 thousand and is estimated totop one million in close future.Astana has experienced a constructionboom on a grand scale, and constructioncontinues apace. It is interesting thatcurrently only 20-30% of the Astana’sconstruction plan, over a total city areaof 274 square miles is developed – manymajor projects are due to be finished by2012-20.Prominent architects such as Lord Foster,Kisho Kurokawa and other elaboratedthe new vision of city, interweaving ofmegapolis and nature that helped to createa marvel and unique image of Astanadistinguishing it from all other capitalsworldwide.KAZENERGY37