Prague, June 18 (CTK) - The real City, or business centre, will grow outside the centre of the Czech capital of Prague, on the Pankrac plain situated in the south-east of the town, Hospodářské noviny (HN) writes Wednesday.
It says that by 2012 a total of 276,000 square metres of offices will be built at Pankrac, which is one eighth of all modern office spaces in the Czech capital.
HN writes that a majority of the planned administrative capacities, or 230,000 square metres have already been built at Pankrac, or are just being built or valid construction permits have been issued for them.
The applications for construction permits for the remaining 46,000 square metres are being proceeded, the paper adds.
The construction of some projects is, however, opposed by civic associations that have complained against it and it is now up to the Prague City Hall to make a decision.
UNESCO also voiced great concern about the planned construction of skyscrapers at Pankrac since the Pankrac plain is part of the heritage protective zone.
At present, it seems that Prague does not face the threat of being deleted from the UNESCO heritage list, however.
HN writes that the City will also comprise comfortable flats, hotels and hundreds of retail capacities and service centres, all of which will fill with a real content the original ideas from the early 20th century.
The paper reminds that Great Prague was founded in 1922 when peripheral parts merged with the city. It was then that the idea to span the Nusle valley that separates the central parts of Prague with Pankrac by a bridge emerged.
The idea materliased in 1973 when the Nusle Bridge opened to road traffic. It is more than 40 metres high and 485 metres long, HN wrotes.
The bridge also has a tunnel for the underground that facilitates the transport of thousands of inhabitants of the huge prefab South City housing estate.
The first apartment houses started to be built at Pankrac in the 1930s and it is also then that the first studies of tall buildings in the neihgbourhood were drawn, HN writes.
It says several proposals to build a Pankrac centre appeared in the 1960s when the Czechoslovak Television complex was build close to Pankrac, but none was implemented.
In the 1970s and 1980s the first tall buildings were built at Pankrac. They were the administrative building of the then Motokov foreign trade company, Panorama Hotel and the former building of Czechoslovak Radio.