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Luzhniki World Cup Overhaul to Cost Up to $39 Million

The Luzhniki Stadium, part of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, will host the opening ceremony and football final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

An overhaul of the infrastructure at Moscow's Luzhniki Olympic Complex in preparation for the 2018 football World Cup will cost up to 2.2 billion rubles ($39 million), a tender published online showed.

The winner of the tender is to be determined by July 6 and the work to be completed by Dec. 20 next year, according to documents published on the Russian government's official procurement website.

The Luzhniki Stadium, part of the Luzhniki Olympic Complex, will host the opening ceremony and football final of the 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Under the tender, the contractor will design and build ticket pavilions, accreditation centers and other facilities, as well as reconstructing three training fields.

The tender does not include the reconstruction of the Luzhniki Stadium, which began last year. The stadium was to be completed in 2017, but Marat Khusnullin, deputy Moscow mayor in charge of construction and development, said on television channel Rossia-24 last week that construction is running ahead of schedule and may be finished in 2016.

The head of Moscow's city construction department, Andrei Bochkaryov, said last year that reconstruction of the stadium would cost more than 19 billion rubles ($340 million), news agency RIA Novosti reported.

The Luzhniki complex, one of the largest sports facilities in Russia and in the world, has recently received BREEAM certification as an environmentally sustainable building that does not negatively impact the environment, according to the Vedomosti newspaper.

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