‘15% per year growth of green buildings in city’

Kolkata: There are 55 certified green building projects currently in Kolkata as the city witnessed 15 per cent per year growth in such structures while the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) headquarters is looking to switch to solar power with the installation of rooftop panels.

Addressing a press conference, Gurmit Singh Arora, national chairman of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) said Kolkata is one of the leading cities in terms of green building and an example of which is New Town, Rajarhat. He said this has been possible due to the West Bengal government’s decision to incentivise green buildings. “West Bengal government is the first government to incentivise such buildings. Most green buildings in New Town have received platinum certification by the IGBC,” he pointed out.

Commenting on the advantage of green buildings from the builders’ perspective, he said: “The cost of construction gets reduced. In the case of green residential buildings, the cost is three to four per cent less than a conventional building. It will cost three per cent less if certified by the IGBC,” he informed. “In the case of commercial buildings, the operational expenditure comes down by 30%-70%,” he highlighted.

He further added that the West Bengal government has to, however, work on bringing down the wheeling charges. “When you are producing renewable energy off-site you are not able to offset your energy requirement,” he remarked.

Shakuntala Ghosh, chairperson, IGBC Kolkata chapter, said: “There are now 55 IGBC-certified green building projects in Kolkata. Many more are in process. There is also pre-certification. If one has genuine intentions to build a green building, then the IGBC considers issuing a pre-certification. If one has this certification they will be able to avail of the 10% additional floor area ratio (FAR) that the state government is offering. Also, one cannot obtain a completion certificate for the green buildings unless they can show they have the pre-certification”. She added that there is a 15% per year growth of green buildings in Kolkata and banks are giving preferences in terms of such loans.

She further said: “We recently met Mayor Firhad Hakim to ensure we can achieve our mission of ‘Sabuj Bangla Khushir Bangla’ with cooperation from the state government.

Hakim on Friday said: “We met the members of the IGBC on Thursday. I have asked them to figure out how KMC headquarters can go green by utilising solar power. This will help us in bringing down the power bills. We want more green buildings in Kolkata.”

West Bengal is among the top 10 states in green building footprint. The approximate green building footprint added to the state is 250 million sqft.