“Medeo” sports complex.
The Medeu Dam, designed to protect the city of Almaty and the Medeo skating rink from catastrophic mudflows, was built in 1966 and reinforced a number of times in the 1960s and 1970s.
The supersonic transport Tupolev Tu-144 went into service on 26 December 1975, flying mail and freight between Moscow and Alma-Ata in preparation for passenger services, which commenced in November 1977. The Aeroflot flight on 1 June 1978 was the Tu-144's 55th and last scheduled passenger service.
Since 1981, the underground Almaty Metro construction project has been in development.
On 16 December 1986 Jeltoksan riot took place in response to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's dismissal of Dinmukhamed Kunayev.
In 1993 the government made a decision to rename Alma-Ata. The new name of the city is Almaty.
In 1997 the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev approved the Decree to transfer the capital from Almaty to Astana.
On 1 July 1998 a Law was passed concerning the special status of Almaty as a scientific, cultural, historical, financial and industrial center.
21st century
The new 2030 General Plan of Almaty was developed in 1998 and aims at forming ecologically safe, secure and socially comfortable living conditions. The main objective is to promote Almaty’s image as a garden-city. One of the components of the General Plan is to continue multi-storied and individual construction, reorganize industrial territories, improve transport infrastructure and expand Almaty Metro. The first line of Almaty metro was launched on December 1, 2011, two weeks ahead of schedule. The extension of the line to Kalkaman is currently under construction and is planned to open in 2015. The area of the city has been expanded during recent years with the suburban settlements of Kalkaman, Kok Tube, Gorniy Gigant(Mountain Giant) being added to the city
