ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) will conduct a public hearing on the environment impact assessment report prepared by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) on Bhara Kahu bypass project on Friday (tomorrow).

On the other hand, the faculty members who challenged the project for its environmental impacts appeared hopeful for a favourable verdict and also chalked up a 14-page response to the CDA’s 244-page-long assessment report – both responses have been submitted to the Pak-EPA.

According to the teachers, the CDA project violated the Islamabad master plan, claiming the civic agency did not take stakeholders on board before starting the project and chopped down a number of trees.

They also obtained a stay order from the Islamabad High Court, which barred the CDA from carrying out the construction work in the limits of Quaid-i-Azam University (QAU).

QAU faculty members say project harmful for environment, started without EPA approval

Meanwhile, the CDA said the project was started after the approval of the vice chancellor and that only Eucalyptus trees were chopped down.

The civic body further said the university syndicate had also given a go-ahead to the project last month.

According to the CDA, 199 kanals QAU land fell in the alignment of the project and in lieu of this land, the civic body had already issued the offer letter of providing 225 kanals to the university.

Therefore, the CDA officials claimed that the university’s faculty members, without the support of the vice chancellor and syndicate, were opposing the public welfare project.

The CDA said 436 trees were in the “right of the way” of the entire project and at least 57pc of the trees would be relocated.

In its response, the faculty members of the varsity stated that the area where the road was being “constructed falls in Zone-III, where no change in land use is permissible except for such projects as may be related to conservation, preservation, afforestation and recreation and are covered by Margalla Hills National Park Management Plan”.

Their reply further said the QAU was situated in the National Park Zone-III and any development project in the area was against the applicable laws.

They said the CDA could not amend the master plan without prior approval of the federal government and in this project, no amendments were made.

The reply further said the CDA in its EIA report stated that the title of land for the said project belonged to the civic authority was incorrect and the project land majorly belonged to the university.

It added that the same was also evident from the fact that the CDA offered an exchange of land to QAU quid pro quo.

It further said the proposed bypass completely bifurcated the current QAU campus into two completely disjoints campuses – a southern campus on 1,600 kanals and a northern campus will be left with 500 acres. The faculty members said that the project was started without prior approval of the Pak-EPA.

The faculty members claimed that the CDA cut down hundreds of trees during the initial works on the subject project site without any permission from the relevant authorities, which was a blatant violation of the tree cutting act.

They claimed that more than 1,000 trees and numerous shrubs and herb species have been cut down and the EIA report by the CDA “does not include any information about the shrubby vegetation”.

The report also stated that the EIA report said that consultation was done, but the same was done only with local encroachers living on the QAU land, but no member of QAU was made part of the consultation.

The QAU faculty members said that instead of the bypass project, a flyover should be constructed on Murree Road and National Highway Authority had already obtained EIA approval for that project.

The faculty members also highlighted the health impact, noise and air pollution and the impact on the botanical garden.

The reply said no consultation/discussion had been carried out about the plan and approval of the project especially, with the director of the Botanical Garden and Science Park. The reply highlighted the effect of pollution, dust, fog, and smog on gardens, especially the botanical garden.

The applicants requested the EPA to decide the matter on merit. “The applicants believe that decision on EIA by EPA will be in accordance with the law,” they said.

On the other hand, the CDA officials claimed that the civic agency has a “mitigation plan” to curb the environmental impacts of the project. It added against one fallen tree, the CDA would plant at least ten. It claimed the project approved by the QAU vice chancellor and the university syndicate would not have “adverse impacts” on the local population and the environment.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2022