Grid station at: F-9 Park Public hearing on Thursday

CDA has already provided free land for project.

ISLAMABAD: A public hearing for a proposed grid station the Islamabad Electric Supply Corporation (Iesco) is intending to establish over 10 kanals at the Fatima Jinnah Park will be held on January 15.

“It is the last hindrance for civic bodies to go ahead with the plan of setting up the grid station and a 132 KV transmission line after obtaining a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the Environment Protection Agency (EPA),” a former official of the agency told The Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity.

He said the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) were not shying away from going ahead with the plan despite the Supreme Court’s verdict in the Shehla Zia case of 1994 in which the court had barred Wapda from establishing grid stations in residential areas and public places.

The grid station, if constructed, will have the capacity to produce 25 megawatts (MW) of electricity which will primarily cater to the needs of Centaurus Tower, a few areas falling in the Blue Area extension and some other sectors.

At the public hearing, according to an EPA letter, proponents and consultants will present project’s details including its environmental impacts and mitigation measures.

In the letter, the EPA has also affixed the executive summary of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the project, however, it did not discuss or share the environment management plan and mitigation measures that will be taken during and after the construction.

According to the EIA report prepared by a private firm — Project Procurement International — the main objective of the project is to increase efficiency, reliability and quality of the electricity supply to sectors F-8, F-9, F-10, G-8 and G-9, along with Blue Area.

The CDA has already provided the land for the project free of cost. The project’s total cost has been estimated at Rs3.75 billion and will be completed in a year’s time.

According to the PPI report, the construction may have a harmful environmental impact during the construction phase, but the impact could be diluted by employing mitigation measures.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2015.