Lax enforcement: EPA chief gets notice over signal-free corridor

LHC had on Friday stopped work on signal-free project.

LAHORE: The Environment Protection Department secretary has asked the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) director general to explain his failure to take action against the Lahore Development Authority for starting work on a signal-free corridor without obtaining a no-objection certificate from the agency, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The notice asks him to clarify his position and to fix responsibility for the agency’s failure to take action against the LDA for violation of Section 12 of the Punjab Environment Protection Act 1997.

Under Section 12, an environment impact assessment (EIA) report is required to be submitted with the Environment Protection Agency for all public works projects. Construction should commence on projects only after the agency has vetted the EIA following a departmental inquiry and public hearings and issued a no-objection certificate.

EPA director general Farooq Hamid confirmed that a notice had been received from the EPD secretary. However, he declined comment about his response.

Hamid said with the LHC having taken notice of the matter, there was no need for the agency to take any action against the LDA on its own.

Lahore High Court had directed the EPD and the LDA on Friday to ensure that work on the project was immediately suspended and machinery brought to construction site be removed. The court had sought an explanation from the EPD secretary for his failure to issue an Environment Protection Order to the LDA in the matter.

The LDA had awarded the contract for the project in the first week of February. Ground work on an underpass at Fawara Chowk (where Jail Road meets Gulberg’s Main Boulevard) had started on February 26.

The seven-kilometre long signal-free corridor has been planned between Qurtaba Chowk on Jail Road and Liberty Roundabout on the Gulberg’s Main Boulevard at a cost of Rs1.4 billion.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2015.