State plans to switch off red lights for green buildings

The BMC has been long planning to offer builders waiver on development charges and rebates on property tax and water charges to residents of green buildings. However,due to the financial implications involved,the BMC’s green building policy has not seen the light of day till date. “We wanted to offer non-financial incentives to green buildings and doing away with the waiting time required for environmental clearance will be a great incentive,” said state Environment Secretary Valsa Nair-Singh,adding that the policy is awaiting nod from the MoEF.

“When the green building movement started in India in 2003,there was only 20,000 sq ft of green project in the first year. Eight years down the line,the numbers have grown to a massive 729 million sq ft of construction projects in 1,127 buildings registered for the rating across the country,” said a representative of LEED India,which rates such buildings.

The state environment department was to issue its very own green building grading system on the lines of GRIHA and TERI last year (see box). Commenting on the delay,Singh said the government is working on incorporating the environment impact assessment — a mandatory condition for getting environment clearance — into the grading system before issuing the guidelines.

“Offering incentives will lead to more and more projects opting to go green. This will ensure enough production of the construction material. Initially,the construction cost of green buildings was 8 per cent more than others. With more such projects the cost could come down to only a marginal 2 per cent increase,” said Singh.

Manju Yagnik,vice-chairperson of Nahar group and committee member of the Maharashtra Chamber of Housing Industry,pointed out that at present it takes as much as six months for a project to get the environment nod,a wait that increases the costs manifold.