Fresh plan to enhance green cover in Islamabad

Islamabad:The climate change ministry has decided to prepare a fresh plan to enhance green cover amid fast increasing road and development projects in the federal capital.

According to the details, the latest data compiled by the relevant officials have specifically pointed out that the air pollution is rising in most of the areas of Islamabad, especially due to ongoing development projects.

Now the ministry has taken up the challenge to ensure protection and preservation of green cover in the face of development projects that are also considered necessary to ensure smooth flow of traffic and provide facilities to the residents of the capital city.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) will play an important part in upcoming plan as it has all the necessary resources and workforce to implement it in letter and spirit. The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) will also provide its input showing comparison of air pollution in last few decades.

The air quality data is collected by Pak-EPA that monitors air pollutants ratio for 24 hours based on three intervals of eight hours data collection from different locations. The plan will be reviewed and approved by the climate change ministry after which all the relevant departments and wings will put in their joint efforts to make it a success.

It will also focus on amicably tackle the issue of fire incidents in the Margalla hills. The smoke emitted after such incidents continues to pollute the air for longer period. An official has informed that "A spike has been witnessed during the peak hours that is mainly due to congestion of automobiles plying on the roads including schools vans, office buses and public cars. Our plan will focus on reducing vehicles on road with the help of mass transit system and revival of bicycle culture in the city."