Green Buildings in India

[Krishnamoorthy K]

The Maharashtra government proposes to amend the Development Control Rules for the introduction of green building regulations initially in Mumbai and later in Tier-two cities of the state.

Under these regulations, it will be mandatory for new buildings to use green technologies for recycling dry waste and drainage water, vermiculture for treatment of wet waste, solar energy and above all rainwater harvesting.

The government proposes to provide incentives in the form of rationalisation in property tax and electricity tariff, and reduction in state taxes like VAT and Octroi on green technologies.

The government's move comes at a time when Mumbai is reeling under acute water shortage and is expected to face power deficit soon.

Similar initiatives have been taken by Delhi, West Bengal, Karnataka, Kerala and Rajasthan.

However, said sources in the realty sector, Maharashtra will be the first to put these incentives in a regulatory framework.

Source: rediff

[Krishnamoorthy K]

New Delhi, Jan 4 (ANI): Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah said here today that it would be made mandatory for all buildings of state-run offices to pass the energy requirement levels.

Speaking at a conference organised by Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment, Environmentalist Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, underlined the need for making necessary changes in the building sector to strike a balance between development and environment preservation.

“We now really have to act as missionaries and make sure that the entire building sector reaches a level of efficiency that not only serves the purpose of this country but stands out as a shining example for rest of the world,” said Pachauri.

Farooq Abdullah, who also attended the conference, said that this would make an impact upon the State governments to raise their standards.

“It is mandatory for almost all government building that are going to come up, they will have to come 4-5 star rating that has to be done. We are now impressing on state governments also to get onto the same and we will assist them in that,” Abdullah added. (ANI)

Source: Thaindian


All new government buildings to be eco-friendly: Farooq Abdullah

[Krishnamoorthy K]

At the National Conference for GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment), Dr RK Pachauri, director general of The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), said that GRIHA is more suited to Indian conditions than any other overseas ratings. This was the first GRIHA National Conference organized by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy (MNRE) and TERI to mark the launch of the GRIHA and also to provide a platform for mutual discussions and interaction amongst the various stakeholders.

It is true that rating systems can play a very effective role in understanding performance of the buildings and thus furthering the green building movement. While the movement has taken strong roots in India, one must understand that the rating system used by many buildings in India is the Leadership in Energy and Environment Design (LEED) system promoted by the ‘US Green Building Council’ (USGBC), Washington.

Source: ConstructionWeekonline

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Ahmedabad: The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is going green, not with envy but with eco-friendly buildings. In what is being touted as the first-of-its-kind initiative in the state and probably in the country, the AMC is planning to build four green buildings.

Mark Ginsberg, senior executive adviser to the office of secretary of state for renewable energy, USDoE from the US is working on the project to make these public utility buildings green."We are working on some projects in Ahmedabad to make the buildings certified green," said Ginsberg.

Read complete news on DNA.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

As the green building market heats up in India, a joint venture of New Delhi’s Studio u+a and Toronto-based NORR Architects is targeting LEED Gold on an office tower in the city of Gurgaon.

The tower is one of two projects designed to date by the joint venture, which last month celebrated its first anniversary. The other is a five-star hotel and mixed-use development in Bangalore.

Read more on Journal of Commerce.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Asia's first and the world's second LEED Platinum rated hospital under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System, Kohinoor Hospital, a multi-specialty hospital, located at Kohinoor City, Mumbai was inaugurated recently by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan. Kohinoor City is Kohinoor's ambitious project, which will be a complete township with residential and commercial buildings, an educational complex, mall, hotel, state-of-art auditorium and hospital.

Read more on Express Healthcare.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

PATNA: The foundation for the new complex of Bihar legislature and secretariat was laid by chief minister Nitish Kumar on Republic Day on Tuesday.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister said the complex, to be built by the Hyderabad-based IBRCL construction company at a cost of Rs 140 crore, would be inaugurated on January 26, 2012.

The two buildings of the complex would be spread over an area of 5.57 lakh square feet located between the old secretariat and the state legislature buildings.

Nitish said the present structures of the two buildings would remain untouched and added that the new structure would be elegent and beautiful which would be built on the concept of green building.

The new complex to house both the Bihar Legislative Assembly and Bihar Legislative Council will have a Central Hall like Parliament where a media centre will come up. An auditorium, canteen and library will be an added attraction. The offices for ministers and chairpersons of various House committees to be set up there will be decorated with modern facilities.

"Complete the entire construction work by January 26, 2012," Nitish told the building construction department (BCD) and the construction agency. He asked them to start work immediately on a war footing. The building will be quake resistant.

Source: TOI

New Bihar Assembly building

Courtesy: Bihar Times

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Designarch eHomes Noida

» Economical with superior construction and delivery.
» Electronically Operated.
» Elegant lifestyle.
» Eco-Friendly.
» Earthquake & Fire Safety.
» Entertainment & Commercial Hub.

Designarch eHomes Vaishali


Electronic Savvy Homes:
Switch on the air conditioning on the way to your home. Intelligently supervised parking and automatic security barriers with wireless car identification ensure smooth entry and exit. Remotely control your apartment's lighting. Stay connected, your apartment has its own inbuilt communication server and Hi-speed wireless Internet is available in all areas of the complex. You can even get messages on your mobile phone and remain updated about your apartment's status, wherever you are on the planet. E-letter boxes will intimate you instantly about new mail through the intelligent network. You shall be safe in your e-home, there is a digital networked security force working 24x7 specially for you with Digital card locks, Biometric safety systems like fingerprint, photo and video recording of all visitors as well as e-surveillance and weather proof motion recording. Lamps turn on automatically when you walk in to the apartment. Forget about those bulky vacuum cleaning machines, Penthouses at eHomes are equipped with piped vacuum cleaning , so no need to carry heavy machines. Your e-home, with comprehensive home automation, can make life much simpler.

Source: DESIGNARCH

E-homes: Helpful in addressing power woes

[Krishnamoorthy K]

The promoters of GreenSpaces, an IT-specific Special Economic Zone (SEZ) coming up in Faridabad, near New Delhi, are understood to be looking at raising $182 million (about Rs 842 crore) in construction capital funding for the project.

Paharpur Business Centre & Software Technology Incubator Park (PBC-STIP), the promoters of the SEZ, planned to come up on 8 acres of land, are looking at financing the project by raising $115 million (about Rs 532 crore) of the total funding by way of senior debt and $57 million (about Rs 264 crore) via equity dilution, sources said.

GreenSpaces, a project envisaged as the largest green building in India with carbon credit offsetting plans in place, is currently known to be scouting for a US-based anchor investor to bring in about $30 million into the project.

Senior officials at PBC-STIP were not available for comment on the development.

The 23-storey IT SEZ will have a floor area of 1.75 million sq ft and will provide world-class telecom infrastructure with a fiber optic backbone, besides other plug-and-play facilities. The promoters expect it to economically reduce energy consumption by buildings by up to 75 per cent over conventional structures.

Work on the IT SEZ is scheduled to start in 2010 and the park is set to be operational by the middle of 2012. The GreenSpaces project has been certified as a ‘Super Platinum Green Building’ by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) group for its low carbon footprint and energy efficiency.

A 48,000 sq ft duty-free shopping complex and a 6,000 sq ft hotel are also planned in the SEZ. The PBC-STIP management has roped in tech partners like General Electric, Carrier, Otis, IBM and ITT as collaborators in the project, according to information available on its official website.

GreenSpaces also has an advisory board comprising faculty and industry leaders from the IITs, MIT, Stanford University, Tufts University, NASA, and the US Green Building Council. Other advisors include the US government’s Department of Energy, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Renewable Energy laboratory and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Source: BS

[Krishnamoorthy K]

In two years, Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, which comes under the Ministry of Environment and Forests and being constructed over a 9,000-sq mt plot at Aliganj in Delhi, will be showcased as the government’s drive to set up green buildings.

It will have all the features of a green building: Enough sunlight, instead of artificial fluorescent lights; natural cooling, instead of air-conditioners; solar power, instead of artificial power generation, and much more. Though late in the day, government offices are fast trying to catch up with the private sector in eco-friendly construction. The ministry aims for Paryavaran Bhawan to be credited with the prestigious platinum rating under Leed-India (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, a green building rating system of the Indian Green Building Council).

Meanwhile, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy in collaboration with The Energy Research Institute (Teri), has set up Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (Griha), a rating agency which will approve a building as green under certain parameters.

Griha has evaluated 28 projects till now and rated one — Centre for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Kanpur. Some ongoing projects under Griha are Akshay Urja Bhawan of Haryana Renewable Energy Development Agency, Earth System & Environment Science Engineering Building, IIT-Kanpur, Commonwealth Games Village, Delhi, and the Office of the Public Works Department, Nashik.

Mili Majumdar, associate director, Teri, says: “There are many states and cities like Delhi, Gujarat, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore, which have showed initiative to turn their offices green. In Delhi, we were to help in constructing 100 green buildings, but the agencies have till now identified 20.” The Delhi Secretariat, Vikas Minar and Soochna Bhavan are some of the buildings in the national capital which are being turned green.

The design philosophy for Paryavaran Bhavan will include incorporating conventional and unconventional features. Some of these are conservation of natural areas and trees to reduce adverse environmental impact, large landscaped areas with plants and water bodies, a rain water harvesting system and reduction in heat island effect by plantation of trees, and use of high albedo materials, which reflect most of the solar energy. Other features will be building appropriate heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, electrical, and water heating systems; integration of renewable energy sources to generate energy on site, water and waste management, selection of ecologically sustainable materials (with high recycled content, rapidly renewable resources with low emission potential, etc) and develop indoor environment quality (maintain indoor thermal and visual comfort and air quality).

Says Prem C Jain, chairman, India Green Building Council, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII): “We are working with governments of Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Haryana to make them aware of the benefits of green buildings. The cost of constructing a green building is only 2-5 per cent more than a normal building. But, that awareness seems lacking.” He added that the trend has started to pick up.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), an energy regulatory body of the Government of India, is also doing its bit to conserve energy. The Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) under BEE, which was formulated in May 2007, is now mandatory for government buildings to comply in the Delhi region.

However, there is no mechanism to monitor if buildings are abiding by the ECBC code. “We are working on a software, which will check for ECBC compliance of government buildings in Delhi. We will soon launch its beta version,” says Shabnam Bassi, project engineer, BEE.

BEE is working with Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Pune, Kerala and others to ensure energy conservation awareness.

Source: BS

[ChennaiIndian]

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...ow/5644503.cms

CHENNAI: It's not just the corporates that are going green with their environment-friendly buildingseven middle class homes are. At least five such houses and eight apartment complexes are coming up in the city. While one such independent house in Madipakkam is ready for occupation, green residential complexes are cropping up in Thiruvanmiyur, Sriperumbudur, Navalur and Irungattukottai.

"If houses go green, they can save at least 30% of their electricity consumption and 50% on water. The cost of construction of a green house would cost 5% to 20 % more than a regular building depending on the facilities the customer wants, but there is a long-term benefit as you save up to 60% on power and water," says Deepa Sathiaram, who heads En3 green building consultants.

So what are the features that differentiate a normal house from a green' construction? A green building suitable for the city should have external shading, double wall (considering the heat penetration pattern of Chennai, only the west and south-west walls need to be constructed in this manner), and reflective tiles on the terrace to reduce heat and thereby save on air-conditioning. It should also have big windows so that sunlight is enough to light up the house during day. A green house puts rainwater to use in bathrooms and landscaping.

"The placement of reflective tiles on the terrace reduces heat penetration by 90%. This reduces the need for air-conditioner during summer. Depending on the budget of the customer, different water conservation methods can also be implemented," said Sathiaram, who is a consultant for the new secretariat building.

UV Krishna Mohan Rao, owner of the Madipakkam house had an obvious reason to go greean. "I have been into energy auditing for the past 30 years, so I thought I should practice what I preach. Every part of my house is energy efficient and is illuminated 100% with LED lights when daylight is not available," he said. What about saving water? "We use only rainwater and don't have a municipal water connection. Recycling and optimum reuse ensure that we have enough water," Rao said.

Finding acceptance for the concept, builders have started promoting green residential apartments. City-based Appaswamy Real Estates has started work on a 2.5 lakh sq ft green residential building Springs' near Thiruvanmiyur. Ravi Appaswamy, MD of the group, said, "To let in maximum sunlight into the houses, every room will be provided with windows measuring a minimum of 13% of the carpet area. Against the mandatory requirement of sourcing 70% of raw materials from within 500 km radius to get a green building tag, our project will source almost 75% of raw materials from the said area. The paints we use will have very low volatile organic compounds. Energy efficient electrical equipment and lifts and flow-control fixtures in toilets will reduce power consumption by 30% cent and avoid wastage of water."

While many buildings, owing to the use of huge quantity of glass, end up running huge power bills, Springs' will not face that problem because the glass used for the building will have low thermal conductivity. Yet another highlight of the building will be the use of power saving remote compressor system for air-conditioning which will regulate the flow of cool air into rooms based on the human presence in them, said Appaswamy.

Vasavi Housing Infrastructure, another city-based builder, has launched a 54-apartment residential green project at Kelambakkam, off Old Mahabalipuram Road, six months ago.

Sathiaram said that around 60 to 70 green multi-residential complexes are coming up in the country, of which eight are in Chennai.

"Such big complexes will have sewage treatment facilities as water consumption of residential buildings is huge. There will also be a lot of open space. They will also have disabled-friendly facilities like ramps and Braille in lifts," he said.

Chennai is also seeing the trend of buildings being renovated on green lines.'

[ChennaiIndian]

http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/world...nadu-17671.php

Tamil Nadu can now boast of the world's first Green legislative Assembly, which has also won a gold certification for its leadership in energy and environmental design.

The design of the Rs 450-crore dream project of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi's allows maximum use of sunlight and a new technology that stops wastage of electricity.

"Lots of sunlight, so no electric lights need to be used during the day. The sensors in every room automatically turn off lights and air-conditioning when no body is using it," said Principal Secretary S Ramasundaram.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex on Saturday. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi were also present on the occasion.

The project was a race against time in a bid to present the state budget in the new complex next week.

So when the 200-feet high dome wasn't ready, authorities chose to erect a fake dome, in filmy style, by roping in the country's best-known art director Thotatharini at a cost of Rs 2 crore.

"It's a 200-feet high dome and our architects told us that they've not studied structures of this kind. So they suggested a trial dome to study the wind speed and corrosion aspects. We didn't want to take risk as the Assembly starts on the 19th," said Ramasundaram.

This new seat of power is a dream come true for Chief Minister Karunanidhi. He'd be hoping that this feat would help him to capture power yet again for the sixth time in the Assembly polls next year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated the Assembly-cum-Secretariat complex in on Saturday. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister M Karunanidhi were also present on the occasion.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

The Chandigarh Administration has given its nod to the first-of-its-kind green building to be constructed by the Chandigarh Housing Board in the city. The 3.26-acre area for the building along the Madhya Marg in Sector 9 has already been allotted to the CHB. The UT Architecture department will govern the construction work and all UT offices located in various sectors of the city will be transferred to the seven-storeyed building on its completion.

“Green and intelligent buildings are fast becoming the norm, as developers and buyers see concrete value and a future in such buildings. These are not only environment-friendly but also conserve natural resources and create an ambience that contributes to improved efficiency, human health, comfort and security in the long run,” said CHB chairman Mohanjeet Singh.

The proposed building will have a covered area of approximately 1.53 lakh square feet. Such buildings are rated on five parameters — sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, material selection and indoor environment quality. Based on these parameters, the buildings are rated as certified-silver, gold and platinum. The most popular rating system was the US LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Designs). It has been adapted for India by the Indian Green Buildings Council.

IE

[Krishnamoorthy K]

"Our study confirms many exciting trends occurring in this rapidly expanding marketplace that firms providing technologies, products and services to the construction industry can capitalize on," said Harvey M. Bernstein, F.ASCE, LEED AP, vice president, global thought leadership and business development, McGraw-Hill Construction. "For example, sustainable design and construction, an important global trend, is increasingly taking hold in urban Indian projects as well, creating significant new opportunities for companies that have expertise in green building."

As the world struggles with depleting natural resources, sustainability in construction practices is an important area of focus in India. Even firms that do not apply for green certification often incorporate sustainability building practices, such as rainwater harvesting, into their projects.

Read full news on CNN

[Krishnamoorthy K]

CRISIL, on Tuesday moved to its new headquarters, CRISIL House at Powai in Mumbai.

CRISIL House is a state-of-the-art green building, designed to optimise consumption of scarce water and energy resources, a press release issued here said. The building’s features are expected to reduce CRISIL’s energy consumption by 40 per cent and water consumption by 30 per cent, the release said.

“Our green building initiative is aimed at protecting the environment by helping conserve energy and natural resources,” CRISIL’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Roopa Kudva, said.

The Hindu

[Krishnamoorthy K]

New Delhi, Mar 17 (PTI) The country's first eco-friendly Thyagraja Stadium and one of the most important competition venues for Commonwealth Games in October is ready for inauguration on 2nd April.

This was stated by Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit here at a function where Public Works Department and Indraprasth Gas Limited (IGL) signed a pact for supply of 30,000 square cubic meter (scm) natural gas per day to gas turbines to the venue.

"This is the only stadium for the games which has been constructed right from the scratch to host netball. It has been constructed as per green building concept," she said.

As per agreement, IGL will supply 30,000 scm of natural gas per day for 3.

PTI

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Reflective of its environmental consciousness, The Park Hyderabad is the first property in India to introduce all non-smoking guest rooms, plus the property is a certified LEED GOLD green building (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design). The internationally recognized LEED certification measures how well a building or community performs across metrics such as energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

Read full news on ELITE.

[Krishnamoorthy K]

Mumbai: Ashok Leyland has inaugurated it's largest manufacturing facility, the new plant in Pantnagar. This is the company's seventh unit and Rs 1,500 crore has already been invested. The plant has a capacity of about 75,000 units per annum on a three-shift basis.

The 200,000 sq.ms of built up area houses one of the most integrated manufacturing facilities in Indian commercial vehicle industry. The facilities have been so designed as to accommodate further expansion in terms of capacity and future models. The company will manufacture the new 'U' trucks, which was showcased these at the Auto Expo in January, at the new plant.

'Green' initiatives

A large capacity water body has been created for water harvesting, with water treatment and recycling ensuring zero discharge. Over 75 acres, representing around 40% of the total area, is designed green cover area and over 10,000 trees have already been planted.

The shop floors receive the maximum natural light and ventilation while the insulated high roof reduces the inside temperature by up to 8oC in the summer months.

MACHINIST

[Krishnamoorthy K]

The hospital always had an eye for innovation. Be it implementing the green building concept in the hospital or reducing the surgical time in joint replacement. The hospital building is environment-friendly with green features like fire brick construction to reduce energy loss, dual reflective vacuum spaced glasses, rain water harvesting for reduced RO water requirement and use of cooled compressed air for air-conditioning.

Express Healthcare

Technopark ties up with group of banks for funding

[Krishnamoorthy K]

At a time when Assam and North-East hardly figure as a promising investment destination for IT companies, Kolkata-based Infinity Infotech Parks Limited (IIPL), a company providing infrastructure solutions to IT companies, has ventured into the region with an ambitious Rs 600-crore world-class IT park project in Guwahati and, moreover, has said would try and rope in investments for the park.

Besides, the company will construct two "elite" residential projects in the city at a cost of Rs 200 crore. "If you can provide the IT companies a world class infrastructure, they would surely come and invest here," said Ravindra Chamaria, chairman and managing director of IIPL.

All the formalities and land acquisition have almost been completed and by this year, the work on the project will begin. Work on one of the residential projects has started and work on another will begin soon.

Pulak Chamaria, executive director of IIPL, told Business Standard that the company was in "touch" with its clients to impress upon them to invest in the park.

Some of IIPL’s clients include HCL Technologies, Mphasis, KPMG, Bharti Airtel, Nortel Networks and so on.

He added that though law and order and security was "surely a concern" that would not act as a deterrent for its clients to come and invest in the park.

He said: "If you create anything iconic, everyone will follow you. We are here to create a benchmark."

Ravindra Chamaria said that they were studying other North-Eastern towns and cities which have potential for growth of IT sector, especially Shillong and Agartala, and would like to venture into those places in future.

He said that the two residential projects would be based on "Green Homes" concept, which would be for the first time in eastern India, and would conform to the Indian Green Building Council norms.

Infinity has been the pioneer in creating infrastructural solutions for the IT and ITes sector in India and abroad. The twin tower ‘Infinity Think Tank’, ‘Infinity Benchmark’ and ‘Godrej Waterside’, in collaboration with Godrej Properties, are few landmark infrastructures constructed by Infinity in Kolkata.

sify