Heavy Fumes of Vehicular Emissions Damaging Margalla Hills National Park: CDA
CDA making efforts underway to introduce rainwater harvesting recharge wells park to manage water for plantation.
Islamabad: Heavy fumes of vehicular emissions were casting detrimental impacts on nature scattered around the scenic Margalla Hills National Park, said Chairman, Capital Development Authority (CDA), Captain (r) Noorul Amin Mengal on Wednesday while informing the members of National Assembly Standing Committee on Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, chaired by MNA Nuzhat Pathan.
“The rising traffic and congestion on Pir Sohawa Road on various occasions has become a nuisance for the Capital Territory Administration”, he said by adding “Pir Sohawa Road was a mess and traffic congestion was posing a serious risk to nature and wildlife”.
The Capital Development Authority (CDA) is mulling over dualisation of Pir Sohawa Road linking the scenic Margalla Hills National Park and the federal capital with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province along with an alternate route to the Bari Imam area to cope with growing vehicular traffic.
He noted that the civic agency was also working on PC -1 of establishing a reception and information centre in the national park along Pir Sohawa Road. “We are proposing another route from Monal to Bari Imam to reduce traffic and thin vehicular emissions. Surveys are underway for the dualisation of the route and finding the alternate route,” he added.
There were efforts underway to introduce rainwater harvesting recharge wells in that park to manage water for plantation, he said.
Development of F-9 Park
The CDA chair informed that the civic agency for the first time in the past 70 years had initiated fencing of the national park and all its resources were available for the IWMB. He informed that the benches, gazebos, and dustbins being installed across the federal capital were all made of reusable plastics that were helping in addressing plastic pollution.
The F-9 that is one of the largest public parks was sprawling over 750 acres of land and was bigger than the famous Hyde Park of the UK.
“We have Rs20 billion tenders issued for rural areas road construction and have also hired a consultant to resolve local nullahs pollution, he added.
