Astana to adopt latest smart technology

    Astana will become a platform for the adoption of the latest smart-projects, officials participating in the International Astex Astana Smart City 2016 forum said.
    Leading firms in the communications and IT sectors along with government officials discussed ways to make Astana a more comfortable city.
    The capital has entered the list of the top 21 "smart" cities across the world. The list is created annually by the Forum of Intellectual Communities. The city authorities first intend to implement concepts that would give an immediate social and economic impact.
    Next year for example, street lights will be substituted with energy efficient lighting as part of a public-private partnership program.
    The work will entail 25,000 lamps that will save energy costs by 60%.
    Chair of Astana Innovations, Alnur Yermagametov said, “Intelligent lighting is a key project for us, because based on this project, we will be able to build our own infrastructure for the Internet of Things so that in the future, we can continue to introduce new smart services for residents. The city authorities also intend to introduce other technologies, particularly, the ‘automatic fixation of offenses,’ (original – KNL) intelligent healthcare and smart apartment owners’ cooperatives. Another innovative project will be intelligent navigation using unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones will be used for monitoring, search and rescue operations, according ot Kazakh TV.