ISLAMABAD: The Environmental Protection Tribunal has cleared the Capital Development Authority’s (CDA) project of expanding Ataturk Avenue after the civic agency addressed the objections raised by the Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA).

Sources in the civic agency said that a few days ago, the tribunal decided in favour of the CDA and after completing the formalities, the civic agency will start the stalled project on Ataturk Avenue, commonly known as Embassy Road.

Last year, Pak-EPA had directed the CDA to stop the project as it included the cutting of over 140 trees. Later the environment agency filed a case before the environment tribunal which decided in favour of the CDA, as the civic agency had removed all concerns of Pak-EPA.

Pak-EPA had directed CDA to stop the project after it cut more than 140 trees on the road

The project for expanding the said road was started in August last year, but in October of same year the civic agency had chopped off 145 trees including pine trees and had to stop the project because of objections raised by EPA. The civic agency will complete this project worth Rs235 million in a year’s time.

A 24-foot lane and a nine foot shoulder will be added to the road and a bridge and two box culverts are also part of the project. The road was originally a service road to the yet-to-be constructed 6th Avenue and is considered one of the busiest roads, particularly during office hours.

According to the PC-I of the project, the CDA will expand the road from Khayban-i-Soharwardi to Ayub Chowk, near Marriot Hotel. In the next stage, the CDA will expand it from Ayub Chowk to Margalla road.

“Since, we removed all concerns of Pak-EPA, the tribunal has decided in our favour and we will soon restart the project,” CDA spokesperson Malik Saleem said, adding that the road was part of the city’s master plan.

“We planted over 3,000 trees to compensate for the 145 we cut down,” he said.

One of CDA’s road engineers told Dawn the civic agency will share the tribunal’s decision with Pak-EPA in order to get a clean chit for the project.

It seems that CDA officials had also lost interest in the project after they felled trees along the road. When Pak-EPA had imposed an environment protection order, the civic agency had not properly pursued the case which resulted in a delay of 10 months.

The CDA had cut trees that had taken decades to grow. In Feb 2016, Pak-EPA had approved the project but had warned the civic agency that it will proceed against it under section 17 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act in case of a violation of its directives.

According to the Pak-EPA, the CDA was supposed to submit details of trees to be felled, but the authority had cut them without informing the agency which resulted in the imposition of an EPO and litigation before the environmental tribunal.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2018