Master plan scrapped over lack of environment study

FDA plans to file review petition before LHC

JARANWALA:

The Lahore High Court has struck down the Master Plan 2021-41 of the Faisalabad Development Authority on the grounds that the department had not sought the required Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) report prior to its finalisation.

According to sources, private housing colonies were earlier managed under the Faisalabad Peri-Urban Structure Plan (FPUSP) 2015, which covered a 912 square kilometres area of the district, while 1.04 million acres fell under the master plan approved in November 2022.

The LHC judgment authored by Justice Shahid Karim states that the Environment Protection Agency (EPA), which is the provincial agency as defined by the Pakistan Environment Protection Act 1997, has not received any assessment report from the FDA for the master plan. The court declared that the FDA had contravened the provisions of the act in the preparation of the master plan and this ground alone is sufficient to strike down the master plan having been prepared without an EIA and approval of the EPA.

FDA Town Planning Director Asma Hassan said the authority was bound to submit the EIA report to the EPA for the approval and it was for the Environment Protection Department to proceed further in the light of the directions of the LHC.

She said the FDA had decided to file a review petition.

The official said that meanwhile, in the absence of the struck down master plan, her department was bound to approve layout plans of new housing colonies in the light of the peri-urban structure plan adopted in 2015 by the city district government.

Four petitioners had challenged irregularities in declaring industrial, residential, agricultural and commercial zones under the master plan allegedly against the interests of the residents and farming communities to benefit developers.

A town planner, Nadeem Khurshid, said about rs50 million had been spent on the preparation of the master plan and now a new plan would require more funds.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 21^st, 2024.