Yesterday RA president Robert Kocharyan cut the opening band of newly built ice field in “The Swan Lake” not far from the Opera House in Yerevan. But this time he didn’t follow his habit and failed to try to use the ice-rink. The first ones to enter the ice-rink were the children from Shengavit skiing school. City administration officials made speeches, where they thanked the president and everyone that were present there and said that this new ice-rink would shorten the way to big sport. City administration officials said that on this territory of 1033 sq.m. 100 people could ski at one time. And according to these calculations and the future demand they are going to decide how many hours a day it will be used. They were so kind to announce that it will be free to ski there this year. “As for next year, we will speak about it next year”, said head of Yerevan city administration communal economy and reconstruction head Frunz Basentsyan. Skiing is free here, but people have to pay for ice-skates (1000 dram for one hour). They said that people didn’t have to rent ice-skates and could bring their own ice-skates with them.
They invested million drams in the reconstruction works, which lasted seven months. The technical facilities were made in France. The ice-rink will operate in the period between November and March, and the they will collect all the facilities and keep in safe places for the next years, and the lake will be filled with water again. Except ice-skate renting place there will be also a café, medical center and technical service center not far from the ice-rink. Children and teachers from the skiing school will teach people skiing. The staff of the complex consists of about 40 members.