RAWALPINDI, April 12: The economic affairs division and the Punjab department of planning and development have approved the Rawalpindi Environmental Improvement Project (REIP), sources told Dawn here on Monday.

A fact-finding mission of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the government of Punjab jointly presented an aide memoir of the project on March 24 in Lahore after the bank mission, which had been invited by the Punjab government, reached an agreement with the latter on the objectives, scope, components, cost, financing and implementation arrangements, terms and conditions of the project.

According to the memoire, the ADB would provide $60 million to the Punjab government for the implementation of the project. The final negotiation for loan would be held from July 22 to 23, officials said.

A review meeting of the ADB management would also be held on May 10 followed by a loan appraisal on May 17-28. When contacted, Nahid Ghazanfar, team leader of Nespak, which is conducting technical survey for the REIP, said the aide memoire was okayed by the economic affairs division on April 5 and the Punjab department of planning on April 7.

Small water treatment plants in the Rawal Lake catchment area, which were not initially included in the REIP, would now be constructed under the project, she said.

Ms Ghazanfar said the project focused on saving the Rawal Lake and its catchment area from pollution. Initially, experts had estimated that the storage capacity of Rawal Lake would remain the same for 73 years, but after the channelling of waste water into the lake it was feared that the water reservoir would be filled with mud within 40 years, she said.

Therefore, the ADB and Nespak have also held discussions with the officials of the CDA, she added. She said the CDA officials had also agreed to take steps for banning boating in the Rawal Lake and controlling the flow of effluent into the lake at various points, including Banni Gala and Bhara Kahu, Ms Ghazanfar said.

She said the authority had also agreed to take measures for checking the construction of unapproved new colonies in the catchment area of the lake.

To control the channelling of the effluent of Islamabad into Nullah Leh, the CDA had agreed to construct a water treatment plant on the Leh with the financial assistance of a French company. The plant would be built in the limits of CDA due to which only clean water would flow in Leh from the federal capital.