Public Involvement In Orange Line Project

Background Information

The EIA goal is to provide the report on a project planned by a company or in this case Government of Punjab on Orange line Train in which they provide complete information about the impacts of the particular project on humans and their social behaviour as the project will be constructed in the area and the impacts on human and physical geography. This EIA has been done by NESPAK. The EIA identify different aspects of the project and identify different measures that can affect the immediate surroundings of the area for the short and longer period of time. These suggestions are provided to authorities that can implement those measures. The main objective of the project is

• Safe, congestion free, quality public transport.
• To avoid accidents due to congestion on the roads
• To conserve the environment by reducing the fuel consumption
• To provide an opportunity for local labours and skilled workers to earn and learn the skills for economic growth.

Public Involvement

Public Involvement is the component of EIA in which locals or other stakeholders were been contacted and they involve in the process of the project and give their own concerns as they know more about the local people and their thinking style. Basically, it is to take the local people into consideration and gain their trust that this project is purely helping them in near future. This consideration helps EIA in decision making for the project. List of the benefits of Public Involvement Techniques for the project. There are many benefits of involving the public into the project. Some are as follows:

• Provide the community with a platform where they can raise their concerns and built a trust relationship between communities and the stakeholders that can help to achieve more informed and help in decision-making process
• It can empower people so they know they can raise their voices on the issues they face which create a greater sense of social responsibility among them.
• It can help to avoid potential cost delays later by resolving the conflicts early and the process goes smoothly.
• By using local labour. It can help to make the youth of the area more skilful and the economy of home start growing.
• It gives the sense of knowledge that how and why it is important to conserve Environment.
• It improves transparency and creates the sense of credibility.
• It will increase public confidence in the EIA processes. Methods used to get Public Involvement

1. Public Displays/Media Coverage

In this era of technology and the fast world around, people tend to used to incline more on technological items such as watching the news on TVs more than on Newspaper and using social media on phones. So according to me if the weekly progress of the project showed on different platforms of mainstream media and social media, it will show people the seriousness of the project (Orange Line) taken by the government among people. Media Coverage is also important because many people in our country are not educated to read and write so these people only rely on listening to the news. It will encourage them to be part of the project and they eagerly want to show interest and involve. They got to know their rights and they have this feeling of confidence that there are people that are here to listen to us. They will get to know why conserving the environment and stopping the burning of fuel is important. They will try to be the sensible public.

2. Local Planning Visits

Why I think it will involve the people a lot is because when in a week or every fortnight, one day is open for the public to see and check the status of the project. They show interest in the project and they will keep the eye on the project. It will provide the feeling of the sensible person or a man who is making his own home. When people come to see they will raise their concern on the project or on the material they are using or if the process is going very slow they can ask about their concern and provide the feedback to the authorities so they can ensure that every concern will be resolved before time. Improved Outcomes of the Project (Orange Line) by substituting stakeholders dialogue in place of traditional consultancy. Why I choose stakeholder dialogue over traditional consultation is because from the stakeholder perspective we try to make a win-win situation in which both the parties come in the impact of growth in short-term as well as in long-term.

• by making win-win situation it will be a disguise to use the skilled labour from the site where the stakeholder or the people are suffering. So not the work stopped by some external factors instead people are earning from it. Like using skilful labour from the affected site along the route of Orange Line Train Project.
• In stakeholder dialogue, the project built on common grounds in which both the parties get their interest fulfilled and everything could go side by side without any clash or interference. The values the cultural sites every concern will be addressed.
• In traditional consultancy, the main focus is on finding issues and their results, whereas in stakeholder dialogue the results were given that can be judged by their merits and which seems fair in the broader spectrum of stakeholders.
• In a traditional way, everything is stick to the facts and positions, whereas in Stakeholders perspective, values, norms, culture, perception and vulnerabilities were also discussed. The End.