New Winter Sports Center Opens in Bulgaria's Mountain Resort Chepelare

Sofia News Agency, 07.01.2009

A new sports center with 20 km of ski tracks and a new ski lift was opened on Wednesday in Chepelare resort in Chepelare, which is located in the Rhodope Mountains.

The Chepelare Sports Center was opened by Ekaterina Dafovska, Bulgaria's gold medalist in biathlon from the 1998 Nagano Olympics, who is also a native of Chepelare. It is equipped with the latest system for making artificial snow, and with free wireless Internet.

The Center's new lift has the capacity to transport 2 000 people per hour on a distrance of 2,7 km, which takes it nine minutes.

About EUR 10 M have been invested in the various facilities of the Chepelare Sports Center so far. The total investments in the resort complex are expected to reach EUR 50 M in a few years as facilities for summer sports will also be constructed.

The investor in the complex is a public-private partnership called Chepelare Kurort Jsc. The Chepelare Municipaly has a share of 49%, whereas the other 51% are owned by the private consortium Ropodska Initsiativa ("Rhodope Initiative") Jsc.