Uzbekistan’s first world-class ski resort, Amirsoy, is expected to host its first guests this December, the official Jahon news agency has reported.

The 900-hectare attraction is located in the mountainous Bostanlyk district of Tashkent region in the northeast of the country.

Uzbekistan is seeking to develop a “free tourist zone” (FTZ), Charvak, in Tashkent region. The new resort is likely to form a prized part of this project. The historical landmarks of Samarkand and Bukhara have long been the main draws for tourism in Central Asia’s most populous nation, but the current ruling administration is looking for opportunities to expand the tourism industry in line with its attempts at liberalising and opening up the economy.

Amirsoy resort consists of a network of snow ski slopes of “varying degrees of complexity” with a total length of approximately 21.3 km. It also contains a snowboard park, a sports school, residential buildings and seven cable cars, among other resort-related infrastructure. The total cost of the project amounts to over €100mn.

The December deadline only accounts for the first stage of the project, which is to have three more phases. The first phase is to include the commissioning of 12.3km worth of 13 ski slopes, two ropeways with a length of 3km, two artificial lakes, an “artificial snow making system” and a helipad, among other goals.

Andorra-based PGI Management signed an agreement with Uzbekistan’s Amirsoy Mountain Resort to coordinate the resort’s construction. PGI agreed to provide management and supervision services during all four phases of the project.

The Austrian company Doppelmayer was contracted to set up the cable car systems in the ski resort.