THERE are a number of people who are writing about the climate change and the importance of trees in environment, thinking that they would be heard. A decade ago Islamabad was very green, and its temperature in summer seasons was much better than it is today. But now its temperature frequently touches 40° C.

This is because of the cutting of trees.

During the construction of new roads, called avenues, thousands of trees were cut down, while in the metro bus project over 700 fully grown trees and about 4,000 small trees and shrubs were chopped down.

Now the CDA is set to chop down 300 more trees to facilitate the Islamabad Highway expansion from Zero Point to Rawat. It is unfortunate that those who should be starting campaigns for planting trees are cutting them vigorously.

Abdul Raheem Bhutto Larkana (2) APROPOS a news report (July 12) that the CDA is set to chop off over 300 trees for the highway project.

Do we we really need the expansion and intersection at I/8? As far as I remember there was just a U-turn at this point.

The original master plan does not show an intersection at this spot. It was only during the Zia era that the I/8 sector, which was a communication centre, was converted into a residential area for bureaucrats, as is being now contemplated in the case of NARCland.

It is because of this change in the master plan that the traffic gets clogged at this point. So to correct one violation another wrong is now being done.

Regarding the ongoing project, would it not have been better if instead of initiating the expansion of the highway first, the underpass was given priority, more so because of schools being closed for summer vacations?.

Once the schools open, it will create quite a mess and chaos at this junction. The CDA and the contractorneedto take thisintoaccount and take corrective steps in anticipation.

Muhammad K. Suß Islamabad