KARACHI, May 21: The committee of experts appointed by Sindh Environmental Protection Agency for the Environment Impact Assessment in regard to the proposed Karachi Elevated Expressway on Sharea Faisal will inspect the project site shortly, said a source in the committee.

The first meeting of the committee, chaired by SEPA Director-General Abdul Malik Ghauri, was held on Monday. The committee has been tasked to have a quantitative and qualitative assessment of the documents and data furnished by the proponents of the project, comments from the public and government agencies.

A senior member the committee, Shamsul Haq Memon, former environment secretary, did not attend the meting for personal reason, said the source. Among others, Taameer-i-Karachi Programme Project Director Rauf Akhtar Farooqi and some other officials of the city government attended the meeting and briefed the participants about the expressway project, which would be materialized through a foreign investment.

The city government officials maintained that by adopting appropriate mitigation measures the likely outfalls of the proposed project, including environmental impacts, would be overcome.

When contacted, the SEPA DG Abdul Malik Ghauri said the date for inspection of the project site had not been finalized yet. Though a number of committee members wanted to inspect the project site of the 25-km expressway on coming Sunday, the final date would be fixed by Mr Rauf Farooqui, he added.