Kazakhstan plans to build by 2015 a "economic bridge" linking the European and Asian continents, local media reported Sunday.

A total of 3.4 trillion tenge (some 26.4 billion US dollars) will be invested by 2015 to build dozens of transport infrastructure projects, Kazakhstan's Minister of Transport and Communication Kazhmurat Nagmanov said in a strategic report on the Central Asian country's development of transportation.

The core of the strategy is to build an "economic bridge" that connects Asia and Europe, Nagmanov said.

Over 50,000 km of highways and 2,000 km of railways will be built by then, said the minister. The Caspian ports, including those of Aktau, Bautino and Kurek, will be further developed and air transport strongly beefed up, he said.

Kazakhstan, covering some 2.7 million square kilometers, extends across Europe and Asia with most of its territory in the Asian continent.

Leading other Central Asian countries in the development of transport infrastructure, Kazakhstan has a relatively complete net of domestic airlines and several international skyways.

According to latest official statistics, the total volume of goods freight in Kazakhstan amounted to 1.395 billion tons for the first three quarters of 2005, a rise of 5 percent over the same period of the previous year.

Source: Xinhua