For taking the general public and stakeholders comments over the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report of the Avari Hotels Ltd on 'Construction of Avari Hotel at Islamabad' costing more than $70 million, a public hearing was held here on Saturday.
The meeting was chaired by Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) Director General Asif Shuja Khan and attended by the stakeholders included representatives from public and private sector organisations.
This public hearing was arranged in compliance of section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997, and IEE/EIA Regulations 2000, Asif Shuja, in his opening remarks, appreciated the Avari Hotels Ltd for fulfilling the legal requirements under Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 and expected that they would make the project environment-friendly.
The representative of Avari, in their remarks, assured the forum that the proponent is committed for safe and secure environment in and around the proposed project. Sharing the details of the hotel, the representatives of Avari informed participants that it will be constructed at G-6 Markaz over an area of 10,500 square meters, it will be a 25-story five-star hotel with 361 rooms and other facilities like six restaurants, banquet halls, meeting rooms, health club, parking, executive floors, and retail space.
In the scheme, the structure will be based on the new requirement of the relevant building regulatory authorities, which have upgraded this area as Zone-3 Seismic factors. They stated that Avari Hotel enjoys international repute and through forthcoming project they would provide world class facilities with compliance with environmental standards thus promoting the eco-tourism.
This was followed by presentation on EIA report and mitigation plan of the project to offset environmental impacts. The participants raised question related to water consumption of the hotel while in operation, handling of solid waste, sewage disposal, recycling of water, energy conservation, vehicular traffic management, parking space, ensuring of green spaces, rain water harvesting, seismic viability, reflection and shadow were given satisfactory answers.
The local residents appreciated the project as it would be replacing the old redundant structure, which has been standing incomplete since 1980. There was, however, a concern on the delay in submission of EIA report by the proponent as the construction work has already been started. The representative of the Avari Hotels and his team assured the participants that the issues raised by the stakeholders will be incorporated in the design of the project to make the hotel environment-friendly.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.