The renovation of the Winter Sports Palace in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia is likely to begin this spring.

The state enterprise Akademika 2011 announced a new tender for the renovation of the sports hall amounting to BGN 35 M.

The previous public procurement procedure amounting to BGN 50 M was halted by the caretaker government of Prime Minister Georgi Bliznashki in 2014 and cancelled by the Supreme Administrative Council (VAS).

At the end of last year, Akademika 2011 announced a new tender for BGN 29.166 M without VAT, daily Dnevnik informs.

The current procedure foresees reconstruction of the facility, with the conditions for potential candidates more relaxed.

To be eligible to participate in the tender, candidates are required to have constructed or repaired a similar facility with a minimum capacity of 2500 people.

The new tender foresees reconstruction and modernisation of the refrigeration installation responsible for producing the ice in the hall, which means that most likely the installation in place from the 1980s will be not replaced.

The renovation is foreseen to begin after the end of the winter season in April and to be carried out at stages in order to avoid interruption of repair works during next winter.

The term for completing the renovation is twenty months.