BRT construction: PHC directs DG EPA to check pollution twice a day

PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court (PHC) on Tuesday directed the director general of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to check pollution two times a day during construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.

A two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Syed Afsar Shah also issued direction to Peshawar Development Authority (PDA) to sprinkle water on roads three to six times in a day to decrease the level of pollution.

Director General EPA Dr Bashir Khan, Director General PDA Israrul Haq, Director IT and Administration PDA Major (Retd ) Khalid Amin and SSP Traffic Yasir Afridi appeared in the court. The officials submitted the progress reports on the level of air pollution and traffic problem in the construction of the BRT.

PDA DG Israrul Haq submitted that the data about air pollution was being regularly updated on the PDA website. However, he said that blacktopping of roads at various places of the Reach-1 and Reach-3 of BRT project is being continued.

He said that temporarily the level of dust in the air increased while heavy machinery is cleaning the roads sides for blacktopping. The official further submitted that the PDA had continued three to six times sprinkling of water on the roads to control the dust in the construction of the BRT.

However, he stated that the citizens had been passing through difficulties for the last five months. "The civil work would be completed and roads would be cleared within days," he added. SSP Traffic Yasir Afridi informed the bench that he was personally visiting various sites 10 times a day and monitoring traffic on the roads.

He said that University of Peshawar is also cooperating with the traffic police and traffic flow is good after using university's links roads for traffic during construction work of the BRT. Major Usman Ghani, representative of Military Police (MP), informed the bench that the Cantonment Board staff was regularly sprinkling water on the roads and there was no dust pollution in the Peshawar Cantonment during construction of the project. However, the court directed the EPA DG to inspect the sites two times a day and inform the authorities concerned about the situation.