The petition for Metro Line D has enough signatures; it will be discussed by the city council

Prague - The petition for the announcement of an architectural competition for the design of the planned metro line D stations will be discussed next Thursday by the Prague city council. Vít Hofman, spokesperson for the Prague city hall, stated this in response to a query from ČTK. The initiators of the petition informed today on Facebook that they submitted petition sheets with more than 2,700 signatures to the city hall. According to the mayor’s deputy for urban development, Petra Kolínská (SZ/Trojkoalice), their request is justified.

"I agree with the petition, and I will meet with the petitioners in the coming days. Together with my colleague Dolínek, we are preparing a procedure that aims to reconcile this justified request with the current state of the project, which has been in preparation for more than 20 years," Kolínská told ČTK. Petr Dolínek (ČSSD) is the mayor's deputy for transport.

In July, Kolínská stated that the city would announce architectural competitions for two out of ten stations. The appearance of the interiors of the remaining eight stations will arise from artistic designs, but the structures cannot be modified too much due to already issued zoning decisions.

The initiators are requesting that the design of all metro stations come from an international architectural competition. Currently, their projects are created by the company Metroprojekt, which was awarded the contract for the metro project worth 440 million crowns by Prague.

"We do not consider the published designs of the architectural solutions for the individual new stations from Metroprojekt, including the urban planning solution, to be suitable. They bear no signs of modern contemporary architecture; they resemble postmodern buildings from the 90s," state the petitioners.

The petition will be discussed on Wednesday by the supervisory committee of the city council, which has the authority to handle petitions addressed to Prague. "On Tuesday at the council, it should be assigned to the agenda of the city council," added the spokesperson.

Metro D will connect the city center with the southern part of the city. Construction will first commence on the segment from Pankrác to Písnice. In the next phase, the remaining two stations Náměstí Bratří Synků and Náměstí Míru will be built. The construction of the first section should be completed by 2022, but it is unclear whether the anticipated deadline will be met. So far, it has not been possible to acquire all the land necessary for the construction, without which it is impossible to apply for a building permit.