Dmitry Chernyshenko, General Director of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Bid Committee, said Friday he hopes a federal development program and popular support would prove successful to Sochi’s Olympic bid, reports Itar-Tass.
Chernyshenko said, “Sochi is a unique environmental zone that has both the sea and mountains. A central stadium for opening and closing the possible games, a sleigh and bobsleigh track and an ice hockey stadium will be built in the first turn.
Russia does not have a single sleigh and bobsleigh track at present, so it would be the number one sports facility for Sochi. The world has only 12 tracks of the kind and their commercial use is very intensive. One has to pay 285 Swiss francs for riding down the St. Moritz track”, he said.
About $12 billion will be invested in the development of Sochi, including $5.7 billion assigned from off-budget sources and the rest from the federal development program, Chernyshenko said.
Chernyshenko said that eighty-six per cent of Sochi residents support the Olympic bid.
Chernyshenko said a new airport will be built in 2006 at a cost exceeding $300 million, capable of servicing heavy planes. The region is also building a light metro able to carry 70,000 passengers per hour from the coast to the mountains.
