Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) is holding a public hearing on July 12 to take comments from the general public and stakeholders over Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for construction of Avari Hotel Islamabad, costing more than $70 million, it is learnt.
During the public hearing the proponent and consultant would present project details, the impact of the proposed project and planned mitigation measures. The hearing shall be presided over by Asif Shuja, Director General Pak-EPA.
Sharing the details of Avari Hotel, Pak-EPA officials told Business Recorder that M/s Avari Hotels Ltd have submitted the EIA report containing detailed information on the existing environmental conditions, description of the project, analysis of impacts and suggested mitigation measures to be implemented during the execution of the proposed project.
According to the information it will be constructed at G-6 Markaz over an area of 10,500 square meters, it will be a 25-story five star hotel with 361 rooms and other facilities like six restaurants, banquet halls, meeting rooms, health club, garage parking, executive floors and retail space. All the structure to be built in the scheme will be based on the new requirement of the relevant building regulatory authorities, which have upgraded this area as Zone-3 Seismic factors.
However the emission of hazardous gases like sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide from the construction machinery and the transport carrying construction material would add to adverse environmental degradation. Besides this sewage, solid wastes, redundant food from restaurant and other such things could also become a major cause of environmental degradation.