LAHORE: In a bid to act upon the conditions imposed by the Environment Protection Department while issuing a no objection certificate (in December), the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) has asked the Parks & Horticulture Authority (PHA) to transplant 59 grown trees, aged 5 to 10 years, from around Akbar Chowk and transplant them at other places to start the civil work on the Rs3.10bn flyover/underpass project.

“The total number of the trees planned to be removed in the wake of this project is 59. However, we, while following the SOPs (standard operating procedures) and policy, will get these trees transplanted at other parts of the project area through the PHA that has a proper machine to do this job,” Haroon Saifi, the project director, explained while talking to Dawn on Saturday.

“Hopefully, we will get this work done after vacation of the stay order we hope the court will do on Tuesday when the Lahore chief traffic officer (CTO) will submit a traffic diversion plan that will not cause environmental issues,” he hoped.

Caretaker Chief Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi had laid the foundation stone of the project on Feb 28 and he had directed the LDA to start work as soon as possible, keeping in view the increasing environmental issues due to traffic congestions on the Maulana Shaukat Ali Road, especially at the Akbar Chowk—a major intersection connecting Township, Faisal Town, Model Town and Johar Town.

However, on March 3, the Lahore High Court (LHC) issued a stay order restricting the LDA from the work on the project on a petition related to environmental issues.

The court was also of the view that the government shouldn’t start any new project till completion of the ongoing ones. And, if it is necessary to launch new schemes (major ones especially), the authorities concerned would have to satisfy the court first.

“There would be no loss to the trees planned to be uprooted as the PHA has a specialty to perform such a job. We hope we will be able to start work from Tuesday as the contractor has already mobilised the machinery. A camp office and a concrete plant have also been set up at the project site,” Mr Saifi said.

He said the authority would also ensure plantation of 3,000 trees (6-7 foot height) at the project area and the rest of the places (median line) of the entire Maulana Shaukat Ali Road as per instructions of the environment department.

It merits mention that the project—a part of Maulana Shaukat Ali Road signal-free project–consists of 700 metres of the flyover and 540 metres of the underpass. It has been designed to accommodate two-lane traffic, serving the needs of commuters from Faisal Town, Johar Town, Kot Lakhpat and other localities. According to an official document, the number of beneficiary vehicles is estimated to be around 105,000 per day. The traffic crossing the intersection from College Road or Faisal Town will also have signal-free access on both sides.

Lahore has lost thousands of trees besides indigenous shrubs, bushes, grass that used to be a source of oxygen for humans and the natural habitat of animals, birds, underground insects etc due to several infrastructure projects since 2016. The Lahore Orange Line Metro Train project claimed 620 trees and herbs, such as Arjun, Dhak, Mahwa, Bahara, Alstonia, Ashoke, Sheesham, Alata, Kenair, Weeping Willow, Peepal, Simbal, Berri, Sukh Chain and Poplar. Similarly, the Gulberg signal-free project (Liberty to Shadman Fowara Chowk) consumed 196 trees.

Moreover, the authorities also uprooted about 1,300 trees, including several fruits for the Canal Road widening project at three stretches. These included 657 trees from Canal View gate to Doctors Hospital to Sunflower Society (section-I, both sides), 69 from section-2 (both sides) from Dharampura to The Mall and 575 from section-3 (from Dharampura to Harbanspur). For the Link Canal Road, from the Punjab University land via Kareem Block, 120 trees, a majority of them of mango, were also chopped. Likewise, 64 trees were also cut off for laying a high-tension transmission line with heavy poles near Jallo along Canal Road. Several trees were cut for the Firdaus Market underpass project. Sixty trees were uprooted for Johar Town’s Main Boulevard (Khayaban-i-Firdausi) signal-free project.

Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2023