LAHORE: The Punjab Environment Department (EPD) has denied a No Objection Certificate (NOC) to the Lahore Development Authority (LDA) for the proposed Elevated Express Way (EEW) from Gulberg to Motorway, Pakistan Today has learnt.
The executing body of the multi-billion EEW project, LDA, had prepared the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report in November 2015. However, LDA submitted the report to the EPD for its approval after the Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the elevated expressway project in February this year.
The said project was proposed over 10-kilometre-long span from Main Boulevard Gulberg to Babu Sabu near Motorway (M2) at the cost of Rs 25 billion.
After receiving the EIA report, EPD formed a special committee of experts which denied awarding the NOC, saying that the report was incomplete and made various observations of elements that were not present in the report.
EPD experts while asking to update the EIA report, observed that the gist of the feasibility study which should be an essential part of any mega project was not included in the report. Experts found that the LDA in its report avoided mentioning the implementation plan to combat air pollution on a scientific level.
“Air pollution modelling needs to be carried out for criteria pollutants and a scientific mechanism to redress the proposed pollution should be provided in the report with the implementation plan”, said the experts while observing the report.
It was observed that LDA in its report had also not mentioned the traffic flow on the proposed route. Regarding the number of vehicles, experts suggested to the proponents that they reassess and revalidate the Origin-Destination (OD) survey. Moreover, it was also observed that LDA did not mention the augmentation of vehicle feeder routes.
After making the above-said queries, LDA was asked to make the project in a way that can strengthen the development projects in the province in the wake of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Sources while talking to Pakistan Today informed that the EPD on September 26 had written a letter to LDA Chief Engineer Asrar Saeed asking him to resubmit the updated EIA report but he remained reluctant to respond over it. They said that the EPD again sent two reminder letters on October 11 and November 24, but it has still not received the desired information.
Talking to Pakistan Today, EPD spokesman Naseem-ur-Rehman said that EPD will not award any NOC unless it receives the desired information. He said that the experts made their observations after analyzing the report on a scientific basis, so no one should have an objection to their report.
Asrar Saeed did not respond despite repeated attempts made by Pakistan Today.
It is pertinent to mention here that in January 2016 a public hearing was held in Qaddafi Stadium where a majority of stakeholders rejected the EEW project. They alleged that some of the supporters of the project were ‘LDA and the government’s own men and employees’ who were brought there to support the government.
