LAHORE, Jan 5: Unlike the recent construction of four underpasses in the city in which more than 6,000 trees were felled, not a single shrub will be uprooted while remodelling Samanabad and Allama Iqbal Town main roads, seconding the assertion of environmentalists that thoroughfares can be widened without disturbing the ecosystem.

There are some 100 or so trees on both sides of the Samanabad main boulevard from Multan Road to the first roundabout. The Iqbal Town main boulevard from Scheme Morr to Moon Market has 70 or so trees on both sides.

The Communication and Works Department is supervising the two projects and the officials concerned told this reporter on Thursday that there had been no comparison done among the underpasses and the two road projects.

“The construction of the underpasses required the digging of the earth up to several metres while the two roads are being widened merely up to four feet. The former projects involved use of bulldozers, scavengers and other heavy machinery while the latter plans are being executed manually,” they argued.

Like the construction of four underpasses in the city, the C&W department did not bother to obtain an NOC from the Environment Protection Department for the two projects either.

Officials of the EPD said the Environment Protection Tribunal had recently directed the C&W not to initiate any project without carrying out either its Initial Environment Assessment (IEA) or Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) under the Pakistan Environment Protection Act 1997.

The EIA is a study related to environmental management of a project. Its purpose is to evaluate the environmental and related social implications of carrying out a development project of any size before irreversible decisions are taken. Primarily, it suggests an alternative way to carry out the project in case it poses a threat to the environment.

Work on the projects, taken in hand some two weeks ago, had to be suspended following rain on Dec 25 and then the labour working on the projects started returning to their hometowns for Eidul Azha. An official of contractor Iftikhar and Company executing the projects said work on the projects would be resumed in a day or so. —

Text by Zaheer Mahmood Siddiqui, photo by Tariq Mahmood