Rawalpindi - Fatima Jinnah Women University Rawalpindi signed a Letter of Agreement (LOA) with the Project Management Unit of Pakistan Sustainable Transport Project (PAKSTRAN) for establishment of a centre for Environmentally Sustainable Transport and Climate Change (CESTAC).
Hasan Nasir Jammy, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power and Vice Chancellor (VC) FJWU Professor Dr Samina Amin Qadir signed the LOA.
This Centre would act as climate change and environmentally sustainable transport think-tank, consulting, policy advisory and advocacy body in the country, varsity spokesperson said yesterday.
The CESTAC would also facilitate the project team on the objective of reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption from transport sector with the technical assistance from the Faculty of Science and Technology (including Environmental Sciences) of FJWU at the university’s premises.
Centre of Excellence was also to facilitate the dissemination of knowledge to the policy-makers, planners, researchers and engineers by developing Interactive Web Portal and establishment of Database, she added.
She said that this would achieve the objectives of environmental awareness raising, advocacy, knowledge management and sharing on climate change and environmentally sustainable transport.
Also to address the transport and related problems in the country, the Pakistan Sustainable Transport Project (PAKSTRAN) was supported by Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and is being implemented by the Government of Pakistan.
On the occasion, Dr Saleem Janjua, an eminent subject expert and National Project Manager of PAKSTRAN Project informed that the Centre of Excellence through collaborative arrangements would assist in linkage building and networking by joint research and would carry out advanced national and international applied research, capacity building of relevant organizations. Hassan Nasir Jamy, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Water and Power/ National Project Director, PAKSTRAN congratulated the project team and faculty of Fatima Jinnah Women University on this useful initiative.
At the end of the ceremony, Dr Samina Amin Qadir, VC appreciated the efforts of PAKSTRAN Project for engaging academia to achieve the sustainable development goals in the country. She expressed the wish to work further in collaboration with Ministry of Water and Power the Implementing Partner and Project Management Unit of PAKSTRAN Project. At the end of the ceremony VC presented shields to esteemed guests including National Project Director (NPD), National Project Manager (NPM) PAKSTARN Project.