1000 villages in Telangana to follow Gangadevipally’s Green model, says KTR

The state government planned to establish Swacch Badis in 141 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) with the aim of fostering sustainable practices awareness among students.

Hyderabad: Stressing that adopting green practices should become the way of life, Municipal Administration and Urban Development Minister KT Rama Rao said the State government was setting up Swacch Badis in 141 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to promote the importance of sustainable practices among students.

These schools would help the students to learn about waste to energy, energy efficient practices and other initiatives and make them conscious about green contributions towards saving the environment, he said.

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Inaugurating India’s first Green Property show at Hitex here on Friday, the Minister said the Indian Green Building Council had facilitated India to become the third country in terms of largest registered green buildings footprint.

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao with his vision had introduced several measures to support green initiatives. India’s first Green Building, Green Home, Green Airport, Green Railway Station and Green Factory Building, all these structures exist in Telangana, he said.

The State Government was walking the talk by implementing sustainability measures in government buildings, including the new Secretariat, T-Hub, T-Works, Integrated Command Control Centre and new integrated collectorate complexes across Telangana. The new hospitals and health care facilities would also be Green certified.

“Not just buildings and campuses, our cities Hyderabad, Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar are already adopting the IGBC’s Green Cities ratings,” Rama Rao said.

The Minister said the Telangana Government’s flagship programme Haritha Haram had aided in increasing the Green cover by 7.7 percent in the State. Telangana is the first State to enact law making it mandatory for Urban and rural bodies to allocate 10 percent of their budget for Green initiatives.

Hyderabad had set up South India’s largest 20 MW capacity waste to energy plant at Jawaharnagar. So far, 350 MW has been generated from the plant. This apart, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation earned nearly Rs.200 crore per year through sale of compost generated from waste, he said.

The Minister said Gangadevipally village in Warangal was the first to get IGBC platinum rating for its Green initiatives. At least 1000 villages from Telangana would follow in the footsteps of Gangadevipally in ensuring more green villages were created, he said and sought the support of IGBC in this regard.

The Minister urged the builders to utilize the products manufactured out of the two Construction and Demolition waste plants in the city. This would help in reusing and recycling of the waste and put to good use, he said.

Not just the new buildings that were coming up in the city, even the existing ones should contribute towards Green initiative by retrofitting materials. To effectively promote this concept, the State Government launched the cool Roof Policy, he said, adding that the Green legacy should be promoted among the children to make them sensitive to mother Earth.

IGBC Hyderabad Chapter Shekhar Reddy and others also spoke. The Green Property show is open till Sunday and entry is free.