OREANDA-NEWS. March 24, 2011. The government plans to build in every region of the million-plus cities modern ice sports arena. The Vice Prime Minister - Minister of Infrastructure Borys Kolesnikov said during the opening of a new training arena with artificial ice in Kiev.

According to Borys Kolesnikov, this year it is planned to open two more sports arena with artificial ice in Kiev. "In general government has eight sets of equipment and I think we will find the opportunity in the second half of the year to finance the construction of 3-4 skating in Ukraine, the Vice Prime Minister said. - In Kiev we would have another 9 skating, in Ukraine accordingly - 200. So the decision was taken: we build the skating and transfer them to city councils", he underlined.

According to Borys Kolesnikov, a skating rink could be built in four months. The cost of equipment for such sports arenas ranges from 700 thousand to one million Euros, cost of construction of such arena is about 28 million UAH. "On average, it makes 1 million Euros for equipment, another 28 million UAH for construction work", the Vice Prime Minister said.

Projects of ice arenas, according to Borys Kolesnikov, will be improved. "Of course, we need to work on the projects to increase the host area to thousand places and make more functional the entering area" Borys Kolesnikov said.

New ice training arena, opened in Kiev, is the fifth such project in Ukraine: before this one, similar sports centres were built in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kalush and Kherson. Only in Donetsk 800 hockey players and 200 skaters train on the similar ice arena.

The new arena will replace the old ice rink "Kryzhynka" near NSC "Olympiyskyi", which will be demolished in frame of preparation of the stadium for Euro 2012. Therefore, athletes, who currently train at the SE STC "Kryzhynka", will move into a new modern building in Kiev on 6 Shalett City Street.