Telangana’s Govt depts contribute to green building footprint

Over 700 projects in the State are going green with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) certifications.

Hyderabad: According top priority to environment conservation and eco-friendly construction practices, government departments in the State are contributing significantly to the green building footprint here.

Over 700 projects in the State are going green with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) certifications, amounting to nearly 1.12 billion square feet green building footprint. Of these, government departments, including Roads and Buildings (R&B), TSIIC and others are contributing about 15 to 20 percent green building footprint, IGBC Hyderabad chapter C Shekar Reddy said.

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Depending on the facilities, conservation aspects and other aspects, IGBC issues rankings in four categories of Platinum, Gold, Silver and Certificate.

The R&B department has been executing landmark projects and constructed nearly 30 Integrated District Office Complexes (IDOC) across the State. The department has applied for IGBC certification for one IDOC and the inspection and certification process was in the final stages, he said.

With one such complex obtaining IGBC certification, rest of the other complexes would also be eligible for similar certifications as they were same in terms of design, construction practice and other parameters, he said.

The Integrated Command and Control Centre of the State Police and the Dr BR Ambedkar Telangana Secretariat are IGBC Gold certified structures. The Hyderabad Metro Rail is an IGBC Platinum rated green MRTS project.

Similarly, the Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple, the HUDA Annexe Building and the Commissioner of Industries Bhavan, Abids are amongst several structures adopting IGBC green rankings.

The TSIIC, which is constructing 10 IT Towers in different tier II cities and towns is also filing applications for IGBC certifications.

Already, the IT Tower at Siddipet has been certified with IGBC Gold ranking and a few other towers would also be certified depending on the parameters. The State government is also constructing multi-specialty hospital complexes at NIMS, Erragadda, Alwal, LB Nagar and Warangal. All these structures were registered for IGBC rankings.

More importantly, most of the government departments, especially R&B, were insisting on green features to be maintained by contractors in the tenders. It was being made mandatory for contractors to construct a green certified structure and this was an innovative step taken by the State government, he added.