One of the city’s major landmark Puttanna Kanagal theatre in Jayanagar will soon become history as the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA) started demolishing the theatre from Saturday to build a five-storeyed commercial complex and multiplex in the same plot. The BDA has taken up the project at a whopping cost of Rs 119 crore, and handed over the works to Nagarjuna Constructions. The Jayanagar Shopping Complex too will be demolished in the process. The vegetable vendors inside the complex will be shifted to the vacant plot created after demolishing the theatre.
The BDA’s Detailed Project Report (DPR) states that a multi-level car parking and fish market will be built in the Jayanagar market, which was gutted by an accidental fire over a year ago. The new complex will house two basement floors for parking, five floors for an auditorium, two theatres and a commercial complex. The BDA will collect the revenue from the building for 15 years and later hand it over to BBMP. Two weeks ago, Mayor D. Venkatesh Murthy said that he had directed the BDA to complete the project at the earliest. Mr Murthy is going against his own stand that commercial complexes would not be built in the core areas of the city and would be allowed to come up only on the outskirts.