LAHORE - Despite stiff resistance and hue and cry from the residents of Model Town, the Environmental Protection Agency has given a go ahead signal to the management of Makro, allowing construction of huge cash and carry store in one of the most important housing schemes in the city. Earlier, the city district government stopped the construction activity as the Makro management did not fulfil the mandatory requirements of carrying out Initial Environmental Examination (IEE).  Sources in the EPA informed that following stoppage of construction, the management hurriedly completed the Initial Environment Examination and got it approved from the agency. The construction of Makro Cash and Carry, a Dutch wholesale warehouse, was started in 1997. The House of Habib teamed up with the Dutch to introduce Makro to Pakistan. The site is spread over 65 kanal land leased out by MTS management at Rs 375,000 per kanal per year. Thus MTS will earn Rs 1.5 billion in 33 years from leasing out 65 kanal land.  A group of Model Town residents have been against the presence of the warehouse in their area. They say this will lead to the commercialisation of Model Town and the degradation of the environment. "The construction of Makro will deteriorate environment in Model Town. Model Town Link Road in already overloaded. The construction of Makro will put additional burden of 2,000 to 2,500 vehicles daily including big trollers. The roads in Model Town cannot cope with such a huge number of vehicles. Loading and unloading of goods will make the lives of the residents miserable. The Makro will not facilitate the residents as the customers will be wholesalers. Such stores are established at a safe distance from the residential localities and the same should happen in Pakistan", said Khalid Ikram, former president MTS, adding that the residents would not allow construction of Makro in Model Town. The MTS management, however, argued that a majority of MTS members had approved the construction of the wholesale warehouse. They say that the project has been undertaken keeping in view the needs of MTS residents. The management denied any differences amongst the members, saying, "an MTS managing committee meeting and later a general body meeting decided to lease out the land. Out of 530 members, only 30 were against the decision. Those who disagreed with the project were billionaires and wanted to purchase the land themselves, but that was not in MTS interests, one member of the managing committee said.