EPA for proper incinerator, waste management at Jinnah Hospital.

ISLAMABAD -- The Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) on Thursday demanded the project proponents and authorities concerned ensure proper development of incinerator and infectious waste management system at Jinnah Hospital to be built at Sector G-11/3 of the federal capital.

Director Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Pak-EPA, Ahsan Rafi Kiani presided over the public hearing of the 300-bed Jinnah Hospital to be built by the federal government as an extension of the Federal Government Polyclinic Hospital.

Kiani said the Pak-EPA's major emphasis was on the establishment of sewage treatment plants (STP) and infectious waste management. He underlined that the STP design and construction needed to be synchronised in the master plan of the project.

He also commented on the project layout presented during the public hearing and said no place for an incinerator was indicated and all these aspects should be decided first.

Kiani also pointed out that no baseline data was provided which should have been shared for stakeholder awareness.

The traffic load to increase after the operationalization of the hospital which should also be looked after in the project plan, he added.

In his opening remarks, Ministry of Health Deputy Director Planning and Development Naeem Akhtar said the Ministry was working to improve healthcare facilities for the masses of the federal capital.

The Polyclinic Hospital was undergoing restructuring and the 300-bed Jinnah Hospital was its extension.

The land for three hundred-bed new facilities was procured after a hectic effort of many years, he said.

"This hospital will be built in two years and will help provide improved services. It will be a detailed facility with all facilities," Akhtar said.

Manager Environment Infrastructure Development Authority of Punjab (IDAP-Executing Agency) Zill-e-Huma Faizi gave a detailed presentation on the project.

She said the federal government-funded Jinnah Hospital would be executed by IDAP that would comprise of a basement, ground plus three floors and also with the provision of a fourth floor as well for expansion purpose in future.

Faizi informed that the building units included main infrastructure, a sewage treatment plant (STP), a waste treatment facility, two operation theatres (OTs), an outdoor patients department (OPD), a pathology ward and others. The total land for the project was over 41 kanals which was over...