A concession on approximately 100 hectares of land in Pirin National Park, close to the Bansko resort, has been granted to Yulen JSC. Last Thursday the Cabinet approved the company's project for building a ski complex.

After Yulen signs a 30-year concession contract with the Ministry of Environment and Waters, the concessionaire will be obliged to invest more than 37 million leva in the construction of a ski-zone with a chair-lift and three ski runs.

However, most of the investment will be made in the first three or four years because the ski runs have to be completed by 2005. Two new trails will be built and one existing run will be reconstructed within four years.

With its expected capacity of 900 people an hour, the future chair-lift from Bansko to the Bunderitsa area will be able to take about 4,000 tourists up the mountain every day, the maximum the area can handle, said Hristo Bozhinov, director of the National Environmental Protection Service Directorate at the Ministry of Environment and Waters.

Yulen is obliged to make an initial concession payment of 10,000 leva within one month of signing the contract. When a three-year grace period expires, the company will pay 62,653 leva for the fourth year, and then the concession fees will gradually increase. Some of the concession payments will be made to the National Environmental Protection Fund.

The Bulgarian News Agency reported that local people, who make their living mainly from tourism, approve of the project because it will create new jobs. At the request of Labour and Social Policy Minister Lidia Shuleva, the concession contract will include a provision which will guarantee creating a certain number of jobs.

Environmental organizations, however, protested against the project in August and postponed the Ministry's decision, because some 15 hectares of forests will have to be cleared so that the area can be used for skiing.

If construction begins, unique trees such as white fir, spruce and dwarf pine, aged between 80 and 100 years, would be cut down, ecologists from the Wildlife Union Balkani have said.

At the press conference after the concession was granted, Bozhinov said that the clearing of forestland and the felling of isolated trees would not seriously affect the habitats.

Pirin Tourist Ltd. and Geotechmin Consult Engineering each own 34 per cent of Yulen, while Academica Executive Agency and the State Insurance Institute DZI own the rest.