CDA asked to immediately stop Zero Point Interchange construction

Director General Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak- EPA) has issued Environmental Protection Order under Section 16 of the Pakistan Environmental Protection Act, 1997 to Capital Development Authority (CDA) to immediately stop construction of Zero Point Interchange, which caused massive cutting of trees and dust pollution.
CDA has started construction of "Zero Point Interchange Project" worth Rs 2.34 billion without submission of Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIA) to Pak-EPA and without obtaining environmental approval which is required under Section 12 of the Pakistan Environmental Project Act, 1997 and EIA Regulations 2000.
The massive cutting of trees and excavation of earth work not only degraded environment but also caused inconvenience to the public as no environmental mitigation plan was chalked out for the project. Pak-EPA considers that environmental protection law is equally applicable to the public and private sector as the Ecnec also took notice of environmental implications in the development process and directed federal and provincial government departments to submit EIA of the projects as a mandatory requirement under the law.
The Minister for Environment Hameed Ullah Jan Afridi reiterated his commitment for the cause of environment and observed that EIA process must be strengthened and institutions be made effective to enforce the law across the board. He emphasised that public sector should set example of adhering to environment laws for the private sector to follow to achieve the objective of sustainable development in the country.
Talking to Business Recorder here on Monday, project director Zero Point Interchange, Mumtaz Hussain said that they have not received any directives from the environment ministry to stop the construction of the project. "CDA had a meeting with the Ministry of Environment last week in which the authority discuss the issue with the government officials and informed them that the authority would submit the EIA report within a month or so," he added.
The civic agency had already submitted the IE report of the project a year ago to the Ministry of Environment, in which it was clearly mentioned that the project has no adverse effect on the environment such as congestion, air pollution and resettlement and so on.
And trees that would be cut during the project would be replanted. He said that if the Ministry would stop the construction of this mega project, it would harm its own treasury. It is pertinent to mention that this year on September 11, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gillani, performed the groundbreaking ceremony of Zero Point interchange.