Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) on Tuesday underscored that the water availability was a serious concern due to growing scarcity issues in the Capital for sustainable high rise residential projects.
Pak-EPA Director Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Ahsan Rafi Kiani chaired the public hearing of the EIA Reports of Imarat Residences (IR) 1&2 highrise residential towers to be developed along the Expressway near Capital Enclave Housing Society.
The Project Proponent for IR-1&2 Dr Shahid Mehmood Director Imarat Groups briefed the participants on both the projects located on Expressway at parallel locations.
Mehmood said the IR-1 was located at Zone-V of the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) that would comprise of three towers.
The project was spreading over an area of 14,336.36 square yards (Sqyd) that would upto 29 floors for Tower A, Ground plus 17 floors for Tower B and Tower C with the two basements (each accommodating 312 cars) and elevated site for parking.
He added that the IR-1 had a unique location which was accessible from all areas of the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad.
The total covered area of the project would be 14,000 Sqyd with its 47% area as ground cover and 53% for landscaping. The IR-1 would have 467 residential units which would be completed in three years at a cost of US$80 million where no construction was carried out on the site yet. He added that the project would have minimal impact on environment and biodiversity due to its small area.
While briefing on the IR-2 project, he said the project’s total area was 30.4 kanals located along Expressway opposite to IR-1 that would have 933 total units. The total solid waste generation was recorded to be 3,872 kilograms per day.
He informed that the keeping in view the electricity demands, energy and environmental conservation best global practices and standards were being followed to ensure a self sustainable housing project.
Dr. Mehmood informed that for liquid waste management septic tanks would be established for sewage collection that would be transported to the Sewage Treatment Plant being jointly developed by the Imarat Group and Capital Enclave Society that would be completed by 2025.
Responding to various queries, he said for the availability of water three different sources including ground water, Soan water station, and Ghazi Barotha project.
The Project Architect Imarat Group Mr Abdullah informed that the three towers would have central cores and have separate garbage shoots to ensure waste segregation and proper management.
“We have three car parkings comprising of two basements and one elevated platform. All units and towers have been designed to have natural air and ventilation for all apartments. We will introduce vertical gardening on the roofs and terraces. Moreover, we are using porous materials and solar panels to ensure energy conservancy under our main concept of smart development”, he added.
Director EIA Pak-EPA Dr Ahsan Kiani directed the project proponent to provide detailed information of public consultation and underlined that the project cost of IR-1 was $80 million but no mention of second project cost was made in the EIA Report.
He pointed out that the water crisis was going to the major future concern of the Capital whereas the water availability and adequacy of source was not mentioned in the EIA report.
