30 new Olympic venues will be constructed in the city of Sochi. Over 30 thousand employees of OlympStroy are now hard at work in the Black Sea resort town.

The electric station at Rosa Khutor that will supply power to Olympic facilities in the Sochi highlands will be operational by the end of 2010. The construction of the 110-kilowatt substation commenced in 2009. The building has already been erected and the installation of equipment is underway. Project investment will reach RUR 639 million.

A total of 21 electricity-generating stations are either being constructed or renovated for the Sochi games. The games in Sochi will be organized at two locations, near the coast of the Black Sea and in the mountains at Krasnaya Polyana. The Sochi Olympic Park will be built in the Imereti Valley in the coastal region. The venues will be built around a central water basin, where the Medals Plaza will ultimately be constructed. The main stadium and all other Olympic buildings will be located within walking distance of each other for easier access. A number of facilities will be built at Krasnaya Polyana, including the Russian National Sliding Center (for bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton), the Psekhako Ridge (for biathlon, cross-country skiing, and Nordic), the Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort (for alpine skiing and snowboarding), the Alpica Service Mountain Resort (for freestyle skiing), the Russian National Ski-jumping Center (ski jumping and Nordic), as well as the Mountain Olympic Village.

The regional administration also intends to spend USD 580 million on modernizing communication networks in Krasnodar krai. Projects in the telecom industry include building a network of TETRA mobile radio communications for 100 user groups (with capacity of

10 000 subscribers), laying 700 km of fiber-optic cables along Anapa-Dzhubga-Sochi highways and the Dzhubga-Krasnodar branch, as well as putting in place digital broadcasting infrastructure, especially radio and TV broadcasting stations (building and communications tower) with coverage from Grushevaya Polyana (Pear Glade) to cities of Sochi and Anapa. The development project further calls for building an info-communication center that would allow broadcasting signals abroad with the use of three HDTV satellites.

A fiber optics channel cable will be laid to link Sochi with Adler and Krasnaya Polyana. The cable, which will be 46 kilometers in length, will allow broadcasting news and conducting video conferences from the site of the Olympics.

In July 2007, power plants in Sochi generated 35 megawatts of power. Current plans provide for increasing the production of electricity at the city’s thermal stations at least twofold. In addition, the Krasnopolyanskaya hydro power plant will be reconstructed. New hydroelectric stations will also be erected in Krasnodar and Adler. Four cascaded hydro stations will also be built on the Mzymta River, and steam and gas-burning power stations will be constructed in the vicinity of Novorossiysk and Tuapse. 

A total of RUR 115 billion will be allocated to the improvement of roads and the region’s transportation system. A light rail line will be constructed between Adler and Krasnaya Polyana, linking the Olympic Park, the airport, and the facilities in Krasnaya Polyana. Plans also provide for the reconditioning of the Tuapse-Adler railroad and the extension of that line to the airport. The Russian railways will begin operating high speed trains on the Moscow-Adler line. A new railroad spur over 60 kilometers in length will also be constructed. The rail line will go through the territory of Ukraine.    

Funding has been secured for constructing 15 modern Olympic facilities and hotels capable of accommodating 10 300 visitors. The Zvezdny hotel will be completely rebuilt. The government intends to create an artificial island in the Black Sea near the Khostinsky district. The island will carry the name “the Federation,” and its shape will resemble the map of Russia. Hotel and office buildings will be created on the island. Additionally, local authorities plan to modernize sewage-processing facilities in Sochi.

Altogether, government outlays and investments in the Sochi Olympic Games and the creation of the Black Sea resort will exceed RUR 950 billion, according to Yuri Reilyan, who serves as the Deputy Regional Development Minister. The figure is about 20 times larger than the typical annual budget of the Sochi resort. Krasnodar officials believe that the Olympic Games will have an extremely beneficial effect on the development of the region as a whole. As such, the region’s Lazarevskoye district will be the place to go for youth resorts, and the Tsentralny district will feature a number of open beaches. Adler will still be an economy class resort area, while the Imereti Valley will be built into a fabulous tourist and entertainment destination. 

Earlier Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitriy Kozak reported that the cost of constructing Olympic venues in the Southern Russian resort city will be RUR 185 billion. Of the total amount, RUR 93 billion will be provided by investors in the private sector. The quoted price tag, however, is only one fourth of the funds the government plans to spend on projects in Krasnodar krai, the city of Sochi, as well as other resorts on the Black Sea. All projects are scheduled to be completed by 2014.

The Mayor of Sochi Anatoly Pakhomov stated that RUR 69 billion will be spent on improving the Sochi resort. Taimuraz Bolloyev, the President of OlympStroy, the company tasked with building Olympic venues, said that 30 new sites will be built in the city. Over 30 thousand employees of the construction company are now working in Sochi on the Olympic project.