Krasnodar Krai governor Aleksandr Tkachev said during a press conference in Sochi that people, whose houses are located on the land where Olympic projects are planned, will be compensated, “their houses will be bought using real market prices”. The real market prices jumped incredibly in this region (as well as in Big Sochi and all neighbouring regions).

“There are very few of such buildings - about 3%, and theoretically, they will have to be demolished… Our projects and solutions are ready. But I want to stress, that nothing will be done without consent of our citizens. No mass demolition will be done” - said governor Tkachev.

He also said that up to 150 families may be affected. And that those families that built their houses illegally(*) are being helped to legalize their property, so if necessary they can get compensation.

(*) some people in Russia built houses first, with hopes to legalize them later, though the courts or bribes. Unfortunately this was not uncommon in Russia, especially in the 90’s. But with our new minister of ecology and for some other reasons this has become a risky business.

As I wrote before, people who live in the Imeritinskaya Valley, where Olympic stadiums are planned, are concerned that they will loose their houses and not be compensated according to the value. The concerns come after several recent similar conflicts between Moscow gov’t and Moscow residents.

Interesting thing happened with these people during IOC visit. “Greens”, who are protesting against Olympics in Sochi, included them to their group for the meeting with IOC commitee last week, but later had taken them of that list. “We think that “greens” wanted to use us in their protests against the Olympics in Sochi. But they took us from their list after they found out that we are not against the Olympics, and that we just want to protect our rights…” - said one of the residents.

$400 million will be spent for keeping safe environment in Sochi, including $130 mil for Sochi National Park.

Some of the new Sochi facilities will be built to use sun battery power and the energy created by processing domestic waste, reports «Rossiiskaya Gazeta» daily. Also purifying and waste disposal facilities will be reconstructed.

An alarm system that will warn about falling rocks will be implemented on the railroad between Dagomys and Central districts, reports North Caucasus Railroads.

The biggest news in Sochi today is that IOC evaluation group, which arrived a day before, has begun their five day tour of the city. I guess we won’t get any on the results or even rumors, at least not ’till all three candidate cities are toured by IOC. The only kind of reaction from the evaluation group was that they were amazed by the mountains/sea view of Sochi’s during landing. Meanwhile the city will be “hit” by over 80 cultural programs  this week, most of which (if not all) will have “in support of Olympics in Sochi” slogan. Some of these events will be visited by IOC. They will also meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will probably confirm once again government’s financial commitments and promises of completing all constructions on time.

Actually this is the weakest point of Sochi’s bid - having everything done on time. That is because 80-90% of all Olympic projects must be created from the ground up. There were previous talks about hiring American and European companies to help Russian companies to manage all the construction, as Americans and Europeans have a lot of experience in managing projects this big.

Thirteen new electricity-powered trains will operate in Sochi if the city will be selected as Olympics host. These trains will have three carts of different comfort levels, and they will travel with speeds of up to 140 km/h. New trains will have A/C, automatic temperature control, powered sliding doors inside, fire fighting systems, and a lot of other hi-tech cool stuff. These trains will operate between Adler and Tuapse.

This week has seen, probably, most heated arguments from opposers and supporters of hosting Olympic Games in Sochi. Not surprisingly, though, IOC officials will visit Sochi in a few days on their last tour of the city, before they select an official host in June.

So, lets take a look at both sides (long post) Read the rest of this entry »

It was announced that second railroad track from Tuapse to Adler will be constructed in the event Sochi will become 2014 Winter Olympics host city. “Vesti” news agency quotes head of North-Caucasus Rail Roads: “Today, the Tuapse-Adler track practically exhausted its carrying capacity and requires additionally financial investments”.

What we have today is this: a single track with a few “pockets” where trains can stop to let another train to pass by. This track is running along the sea shore, as you can see on the picture below, Read the rest of this entry »

The reconstruction of the runway for Sochi Airport should be finished this year and go into operation by the end of the year. After reconstruction it will be able to accept all types of civil aircrafts in any weather conditions.

The completion of the terminal reconstruction is planned for mid-2008, after which it will be able to service three times more passengers then it can now.

A new well-room will be opened this spring in the Chvizhepse village in Sochi, where the best known mineral water in the Black Sea region is found. Here tourists will be able to taste real carbonic mineral water found in this region, healing qualities of which are known throughout Russia. This well-room will be located near Adler - Krasnaya Polyana road, and all tourists will be able to stop by here for a quick rest.

Ministry of Transportation will allocate 16.2 billion rubles ($610 million US) for the construction of the alternative road around Sochi’s center between 2007 and 2009. Yuga.ru quotes the Minister of Transportation Igor Livitin saying that this road is one of the priority projects for the Ministry, and that in 2009 it will be completed. The road will be tied with city’s current transportation infrastructure. He also mentioned that more pedestrian underground crossings will be created under Kurortny Prospect.

As I mentioned several times in my previous posts, traffic jams caused by transportation infrastructure (which was never designed for current number of cars we have on the roads) in the city today is a major pain for both residents and guests. There are only two ways to get through the Center (for people going to Khosta, Adler, and Abkhazia) — drive though the main road, Kurortny Prospect, or take an existing alternate route, which is in a poor condition and is often overloaded with traffic as well. I don’t know if they are going to build another road or reconstruct existing alternative road. I think they’ll go with reconstruction, and will add several junctions. And adding pedestrian underpasses along the Kurortny Prospect should definitely help. I can think of several places where those are desperately needed.

Recently Russian federal government agreed to establish several so called “tourist-recreational zones” - popular tourist areas that will have considerable tax breaks. It was done to make those areas more attractive for the investors. I knew Black Sea coast region was one of few zones selected, but I wasn’t sure if Sochi would be on the list, since there is a separate federal program to turn Sochi into year-round resort.

However, today I read in an article on RBC Daily that Sochi’s going to be in one of those zones. According to the article, this Black Sea coast zone will include Sochi, and our neighbours Anapa, Gelendzhyk, and Tuapse region, and will require more investments then other zones in Russia. 181 billion rubles (US $6.8 billion) will be invested into the region (that’s both federal and private investments) over the next 20 years through this federal program. The biggest projects here will be hotel constructions for 110 000 people. The “numbers” are still unsigned plans, however.

15 billion rubles (~US $565 mil) will be spent on improving communications infrastructure in Sochi, if the city Olympics bid wins. If not, then 4 billion rubbles (~US $150 mil).

The completion of seven out of ten planned projects does not depend on IOCs decision on where 2014 Winter Olympics will take place. The remaining thee, most expensive ones, will only be completed if Sochi gets the Games. More fiberoptic lines, HDTV and digital radio projects, A Tetra mobile radio communication network for 100 Olympic family user groups (10,000 subscribers), and electrical and postal communications projects are part of program federal government is committed to. Read the rest of this entry »

Serbian company “Putevi Uzice” will remain the contractor to reconstruct Sochi International Airport’s runway, reports russian information agency “Novosti”. In September 2006, “Putevi Uzice” won tender to reconstruct Sochi Airport’s runway, however Austrian company “Strabag”, which also participated in the tender, questioned weather the tender was done according to law. Today court in Moscow dismissed the “Strabag”’s case, so “Putevi Uzice” will remain the contractor for this est. 200 mil Euros project.

I believe it was a Serbian construction company that built the new terminal back in early ’90s.

Sochi Airport terminal was sold to “Strategiya Yug” company, and it is one of the biggest airports in southern Russia, servicing over 8 000 flights of more then 120 Russian and foreign airlines. According to the information published on the Sochi International Airport’s website it is number seven on the list of 35 Russia’s busiest airports servicing domestic and international passenger flights, and number four (of top 35) in servicing international cargo flights. Passenger flow during first 11 month of 2006 was 1 million 345 thousand 655 people, which is 10.4% up from the same period of the year before.

It was announced today that Sochi International airport will be connected with Adler district by railroad track. And, possibly in the future, to the Krasnaya Polyana resort.

Today, Adler station is as far south you can go by train. Further is Abkhazia (which one still can go to by suburban train). Airport isn’t far from the Adler station, and there’s a highway connecting them. Without a traffic, its maybe 10 minutes drive. Im guessing this could be beneficial to people flying in, but have plans/reservations to spend their time in Lazarevky district of Sochi (which is quite far from the airport) or even Central district. And, of course, this will become invaluable in the event of the Olympics, if the track will continue to Krasnaya Polyana. Read the rest of this entry »

On September 27, 2006, the governments of member-countries of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation organization (BSЕC) signed the Memorandum Of Understanding concerning the Highway Ring Project “Black Sea Ring” (HWBSR). Lets talk about how this can affect Sochi…

Read the rest of this entry »