Environmental Impact Assessment: Govt hopes to get early clearance

C&W department hopes to obtain an Environmental Impact Assessment report before the next hearing.

LAHORE:

Communications and Works (C&W) department hopes to obtain an Environmental Impact Assessment report before the next hearing of the Kalma Chowk flyover case on April 6.

The petitioners’ counsel, however, says that it will be next to impossible for the authorities concerned to fulfill all the legal requirements for an EIA in the time granted by the court.  Chief Engineer Munawar Bashir said the court had allowed them to carry on with the piling work. He said the actual construction was not likely to begin for another three weeks. He said they have already submitted the Rs30,000 fee to obtain an EIA from the Environment Protection Agency. He said they would likely obtain the EIA within 15 days. He said Kalma Chowk flyover was an environment-friendly project. He added that very few people would be affected and a relatively small number of trees cut down. Petitioners’ counsel Ahmed Rafay Alam said the EIA could only be issued after a public hearing and an examination of the findings in the hearing by a review committee. He said a proper hearing took at least 30 days and the review committee could take another 45 days to go through the findings and approve the EIA.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 29^th, 2011.