HYDERABAD, Sept 5: Participants in a public hearing expressed serious reservations over the proposed Karachi-Hyderabad (M-9) project of the National Highway Authority (NHA) on Monday.

They were airing their concerns at the project’s public hearing over Environmental and Social Impact Assessment in the regional office of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The NHA plans to convert the existing four-lane Karachi-Hyderabad Superhighway to a six-lane road, rehabilitate 134.45 kilometres of the highway and install modern facilities for the passengers along the length of the highway.

The motorway will be exclusively designed for speedy vehicular traffic and will be fenced on either side.

The environmental engineering assessment for the project was conducted by professional consultants. An environmental assessment specialist, Saquib Ejaz Hussain, gave a presentation in which he said that the geometric design of both carriageway facilities will be in accordance with the guidelines of American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

According to him, noise pollution in the area exceeded limits and wildlife of the area has been disturbed for a long time because of the highway.

The residents of communities and owners of businesses along the Superhighway were the most vocal in their opposition.

Chakkar Khan Shoro — a resident of Mohammad Bux Shoro village — vowed to resist the project. He stayed furious that the local communities were not invited to the public hearing despite being told that an advertisement had been placed in newspapers of three different languages.

Mr Khan said that his people had agricultural lands on either side of the highway and the fencing on either side would prevent them from visiting their lands. “We have lands on one side, and our village and graveyards on the other,” he said. He warned that the villages would sue the NHA if it continued with the project.

Abdul Rasheed Memon of the civil engineering department of the Mehran University of Engineering and Technology in Jamshoro highlighted some faults in the project’s environmental assessment.

He said that the assessment neither mentioned the history of accidents on the Super Highway nor did it make note of the fast-eroding roads.

Abdur Rauf, the owner of a petrol station, said that a fenced motorway would render thousands of people, who work in petrol stations, jobless and hence, the pumps would shut down.

In his response, the NHA’s project director, Jamal Yusuf Sheikh, said that flyovers, outlets for motorcyclists would be built in the form of underpasses and bridges.

The longest flyover would be between 14 and 17 kilometres. He said there were encroachment issues along the highway and the NHA was regularising land on either side.