OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2011. The groundbreaking ceremony for the Main Olympic Village in Sochi took place on March 23, 2011 at a site in the picturesque Imeretinskaya Lowland in the city's Adler district.

The ceremony was attended by: President of Olimpstroy State Corporation, S.A. Gaplikov; Vice President of Olimpstroy, A.V. Gornostayev; Deputy Head of the Russian Government Staff, D.A. Ryzhkov; General Director of Glavstroy Corporation, A.G. Barantsev; Deputy General Director of Glavstroy, General Director of RogSibAl Company, I.V. Yevtushevsky; Strabag SE Project Manager, Wolfgang Freiwald.

The ceremony marked the launch of construction of the Main Olympic Village for 3,000 residents and the four-star Olympic Family and International Paralympic Committee Complex with 1,285 apartments.

LLC RogSibAl, a member of Basic Element's Glavstroy Corporation, is the facility's contractor and investor. STRABAG is General Contractor.

Opening the ceremony, Igor Yevtushevsky congratulated those present on the launch of the active construction phase of one of the main Olympic facilities, where the key participants of the 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics will be accommodated.

For his part, Wolfgang Freiwald thanked the management of Basic Element for the confidence placed in it and said that STRABAG would "make every effort to ensure that the project is implemented as quickly as possible and with a quality worthy of the Olympic movement."

To date, an opinion has been received from the State Environmental Appraisal and a positive opinion from the Main State Appraisal bodies. Permission to build has also been given to the Main Olympic Village site.

The Main Olympic Village project, which incorporates the Paralympic Village, calls for the construction of approximately 1,700 apartments in 53 wings with 232,000 square meters of floor space. The buildings will be between three and six storeys high. Apartments will have between one and four rooms with various sized terraces with panoramic views of the sea and a landscaped park and mountains.

During the Olympics, each cluster, consisting of several wings, will have its own infrastructure, including a reception, cafe and fitness center. The premises will house some of the Main Olympic Village's short-term infrastructure during the Games, including TV centers to watch the events, accommodation, general services, rest and recreation rooms and snack bars.

Representatives of the Olympic Family and International Paralympic Committee will be accommodated in 12 seven-storey wings with approximately 110,000 square meters, including services.

The facilities are being built in compliance with international construction and ecological standards.