A Ski Resort Is to Be Constructed in the Smolensk Region

Valutino village located in the Smolensk District can become a good venue for establishing a ski resort which will be used all-the-year-round. A potential investment site was visited by Governor Alexey Ostrovsky and by President of the Russian Curling Federation and Member of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture, Sport and Youth Affairs Dmitry Svishchev, as well as by members of the all-Russian sports federations and SKADO Group, which is a Russian and CIS leader in designing, producing and building ropeways.

A site at Valutino has a unique natural relief with different attitude of the slopes reaching 90 m and with a possibility to increase the elevation up to 110-120 m. The land plot is perfectly suited for creating the skiing pistes of various level of complexity with the total length of 2,100 m. It does not require any artificial changes which respectively means avoiding essential costs for the project implementation.

The project provides for 3 skiing pistes, ski-lifts, a few buildings as part of the site infrastructure and a hotel complex. The total area of the land plot where the resort is to be constructed is 87.6 ha.

“There are all the utilities available onsite, including gas and electricity supply systems; close proximity the city is ensured; the access roads are provided, such as railway lines and motorways – as a result, all the needed facilities are created. Besides, the Smolensk State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism functioning within the region, is also worth mentioning. The new resort should serve as an additional facility for the Academy, providing possibilities for establishing new departments and developing training programs,” pointed out Governor Alexey Ostrovsky.

Dmitry Svishchev, State Duma Deputy, also paid attention to the favourable geographical location of the site.

“I am sure that any resort should be in close vicinity to some locality, otherwise it is not possible to ensure the four-season operation and availability of youth sports clubs and schools. In case we implement this project, which is the fact that I have no doubts in, it will be a success for a number of reasons, for example due to good transport accessibility. It takes 15 minutes to reach the potential ski resort from the city, which is a tremendous advantage,” noted Mr. Svishchev.

The working group for the project will involve representatives from different federal associations, potential developer, the State Academy of Physical Culture, Sport and Tourism, Administration of the Smolensk Region and that of the Smolensk District. The ski resort designing is scheduled for 2019, which makes it possible to include the project into the federal programme coordinated by the Ministry of Sport and into the Federal Targeted Programme for the Development of Domestic and Inbound Tourism initiated by the Ministry of Economic Development in 2020.