The controversial Kalma Chowk Interchange project was collectively turned down by the civil society in a public hearing on Friday, while the people associated with the project concluded saying that they would think about the complaints they had received. The Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) of the Kalma Chowk Interchange was presented by Naseemur Rehman Shah from the Communication and Works Department (CWD) for the public hearing that should have happened prior to the flyover’s construction.
The hearing was held at the Gaddafi Stadium, where around 100 officials gathered from Nespak, Environment Protection Agency (EPA), CWD engineers and project directors, while the civil society, members of the Lahore Bachao Tehreek, lawyers, environmentalists and students gathered to watch the presentation. Rehman gave a briefing first where he presented some facts about the flyover. He stated that it was a project of Rs 2.68 billion and would disperse about 0.6 million cars that passed that point everyday.
However, questions by the public cornered the project managers who were left without answers for many of the questions. They said that the public hearing was ‘slightly late’ for any kind of discussion. Sabir Khan Sadozai, Project Director managed to wriggle his way out of questions by stating that since the case was in the high court, and the court had given a stay order for the project to be continued, he could not comment on the issues at that moment. Director General EPA Shagufta Shahjehan said that though they could not yet trash the project after this public hearing, they would however give it some thought and have the citizens’ issues resolved.