ISLAMABAD, Jan 11: Four months after starting work on the Zero Point Interchange (ZPI), and three days before a deadline ran out, the contractor has prepared the mandatory Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report on the Rs2.2 billion project, Dawn learnt on Sunday.
A source in the Capital Development Authority (CDA), which had awarded the hefty contract to the Karachi-based firm Maqbool Associates, said the report would be submitted to the Pak-Environment Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) on Monday.
The contractor had commissioned the report to the National Engineering Services of Pakistan (Nespak) after Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi visited the construction site last month and directed the CDA to stop “major work” on the project immediately and submit the EIA report by January 15.
Earth moving and other work however continued uninterrupted at the site.
The source said the EIA report of the ZPI met all concerns of the environmentalists regarding, removal of trees, air pollution, noise pollution and traffic management. Concern about the impact of the big urban project arose after reports in the media that trees were being uprooted at the ZPI construction site.
However the contractor and the CDA clarified that the trees had not been axed but transplanted elsewhere. Most of them were relocated in the vicinity of the Arts and Craft Village being developed at Shakarparian.
“So far we have transplanted about 500 trees of various species and the process of removal of many others is in progress,” the CDA source said.
Citizens of Islamabad whose opinion was sought on the concerns raised by environmentalists however were “amazed and happy” over the pace of construction work. They expressed the hope that the project undertaken to overcome traffic congestion at the busiest crossing point in the city will be completed before the stipulated time.
A senior CDA official who is monitoring the project said: “Zero Point Interchange will be environment friendly from all aspects. For one, by eliminating the traffic congestion it will eliminate the air pollution that smoke emitting vehicles had been causing there.”
An ugly situation was created by Pak-EPA’s Director-General Asif Shuja early last month by threatening to stop the project by force for want of Environment Impact Assessment (EIA).