An obelisk erected in 1977 at the Ainabulak station in honor of the completion of the construction of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway

In 1926, the construction of the Turkestan-Siberia Railway to pass through Zhetysu from east to west and connect the Oblasts of Kazakhstan and Siberia commenced in Kazakhstan. The head of the road construction was Turar Ryskulov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of Commissars of the RSFSR. This large-scale construction project not only gave the region a present of the newest railway but also new settlements of Saryozek, Matai, Ushtobe, and Ainabulak. The starting-point station was Arys located not far from Shymkent, where from the railway forked in two directions: southwards to Tashkent and eastwards to the Lugovaya Station.

The Turksib Railway was a truly nation-wide construction project. The main purpose of constructing the Turkestan-Siberian Railway was to secure supplies of bread to Central Asian from the nearby regions, strengthen the development of cotton production and textile industry. The Zhetysu residents firmly believed that the construction of the Turksib Railway would much improve their lives.

Participating in the construction of the railway as a worker was the national artist A. Kasteyev. Later, he painted his famous painting «The Turksib». The talented Taldykorgan artist A.Nakysbekov created the canvas entitled «The Veterans of the Turksib». The journalist Ye. Sagatov wrote the documentary book «The Great Trail in the Desert».