Staff Reporter
The Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) will soon formally commence the procedure to conduct cumulative Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) studies of all the commercial road corridors in Karachi to mitigate impact on environment of the surrounding areas due to constant construction of high-rise buildings at such urban sites having highly dense population. The assurance to this effect came from the SEPA officials who attended the public hearing conducted on Thursday at a hotel on EIA study on an upcoming 31-storied residential-cum-commercial building project in Block-8 Clifton on Chaudhry Khaliq-Uz-Zaman Road. Imran Sabir, SEPA Deputy Director, informed participants of the public hearing that the provincial environmental watchdog would soon start sending legal notices to the relevant civic agencies asking them to conduct accumulative environmental impact assessment studies of the commercial road corridors in Karachi. The SEPA official made assurance to this effect after several concerned participants of the public hearing asked the authorities concerned to compulsorily conduct cumulative EIA studies of all commercial corridors in the city before granting permission to construct high-rise buildings there. The concerned participants were of the viewpoint that environment in the surroundings of the commercial corridors got severely affected due to issues related to vehicular traffic management, garbage and solid waste disposal, sewerage, drainage, noise and dust pollution, and water supply.
