HYDERABAD: Certified green buildings, especially in residential sectors, are a rarity in Hyderabad. And with major residential projects coming up in and around the city, their requirement becomes dire now.
However, there is no rule making it compulsory for these projects to be rated on how eco-friendly they are. It is left to the choice of real estate developers to get rated. As a result, only a handful of buildings in Telangana have been rated.
The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority of Telangana, on a regular basis, clears Environmental Clearance proposals for residential projects having more than 20,000 square metres built up area and 30 residential projects got clearance this year alone.
The clearance is granted based on a set of conditions, one of which is implementing green building concepts in the construction.
Few certified green buildings in state
There are mainly two organisations in India which rate green buildings depending on various parameters — Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) and Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA).
Telangana has only 250 buildings registered with IGBC for getting rated, of which just a fraction of buildings fall in residential sector. GRIHA has around 17 projects registered in the state for green building rating, of which only around three are residential.
Incentives required
“As the association of real estate developers with residential buildings ends once they sell it, they do not get the buildings rated.
It is mostly commercial buildings which are registering for green building evaluation,” Chitrangada Bisht, programme manager, GRIHA says and further adds, “State government should start incentives to ensure that builders are encouraged to apply for ratings.”