Depressive but revitalizing city of Arkalyk 4K UHD - Cities of Kazakhstan - Driving Downtown

Arkalyk is a city of regional subordination in the Kostanay region of Kazakhstan, formerly the center of the Turgai region. Founded in 1956, acquired city status in 1965. The distance from the city of Arkalyk to the regional center of Kostanay is 454 km, to Astana - 611 km.
The land area of the city with rural settlements subordinate to the city administration (city akimat) is 15,587 km².
Arkalyk was founded in 1956 as a settlement of geologists and builders. It owes its birth to the discovery here in the post-war years of bauxite deposits (raw materials for aluminum production). In the 1960s, Arkalyk was declared the All-Union shock Komsomol construction site, in 1965 it received the status of a city, in 1970 it became the center of the Turgai region.
Even in the Soviet years, the economy of the Turgai region lagged behind in development from other regions of Kazakhstan, since 90% was agricultural. The region constantly demanded subsidies from the budget, so in June 1988 it was abolished. Part of the infrastructure was removed from the city, which ceased to be a regional center, and promising industrial facilities were frozen. In August 1990, the Turgai region was formed again, Arkalyk again became the regional center.
The decline of the city began in 1993-1994: production began to decline, the outflow of the population began. If in 1991 the population was 65 thousand people, then in 1999 it was 61 thousand people, and by the mid-2000s it had fallen to 40 thousand people. The work of communal services was disrupted: long interruptions in electricity, heating and water supply became a daily occurrence. In 1997, the Turgai region was abolished for the second time, and its lands again went under the control of neighboring regions.
At the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries, local authorities carried out a campaign to relocate the remaining residents from microdistricts to the city center, which made it possible to reduce the cost of maintaining communications and significantly increase the reliability of providing the population with water, heating, electricity and gas. As a result, the 9th, 8th, 7th and partially 6th microdistricts were completely abandoned in the 2000s.
Currently, the city of Arkalyk is included in the list of depressed cities in Kazakhstan with a very high unemployment rate.
There is practically no industry in the city, with the exception of enterprises that support the life support of the city, and the Torgai bauxite mine administration, which is part of the Aluminum of Kazakhstan JSC. All bauxite ore mined here is sent to aluminum plants in Pavlodar and other regions.
Prospects for Arkalyk are ambiguous. On the one hand, the city-forming enterprise - the bauxite mine administration - will exhaust the deposit in the next 15-20 years and only refractory clay will be able to be mined here. On the other hand, there are a number of deposits of other minerals in the region, for example, lead, nephritoids, marbles, and mineral waters. Thus, with the investment of funds and the development of these deposits, economic and social revival of the region, significant development of the city and population growth are possible.
In 2014, the railway line Yesil - Arkalyk was extended south for 215 km to the Shubarkol station, located on the Zhezkazgan - Karaganda highway. Now coal from the famous Shubarkol open-pit mine through Arkalyk is sent straight to the north to Russia, the Baltic states, and Finland. Due to the availability of coal, it became possible to replace expensive fuel oil for heating the city with coal. The construction of a thermal power plant is being planned. Passenger trains are also open on the Arkalyk-Shubarkol line.
The Kostanay-Arkalyk highway is asphalted, but is in a badly broken state, it was partially repaired in 2012, and work continued in 2023. The road Zhezkazgan - Arkalyk has unpaved sections and becomes impassable in wet weather.
There is an airport, but since 1998 it has been abandoned and is used only occasionally as a landing site for helicopters during search and rescue support for landings of manned spacecraft.
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