HMDA shows green path to builders

In a bid to make the real estate lobby in Hyderabad more eco-friendly, the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) would, rather than focussing on the extant problems in residential households, be concentrating more on implementing better ‘green’ technologies towards future projects in the Hyderabad district.

According to sources in the organisation, new building standards and guidelines would be floated for upcoming construction projects, with special emphasis on environmental guidelines in the coming weeks. While the new environment friendly guidelines for upcoming commercial and residential projects have already been on display on the HMDA website for some time around, the implementation of the rules have never really taken off with smaller realty players in the city.

The HMDA in this regard announced that a consortium of builders, contractors and other stakeholders would be held at the city hotel, starting Thursday. The programme to be organised in collaboration with urban planning institutes from the private sector would focus on methods to increase the penetration of newer construction materials and methods that would have a lesser impact on the urban environment. Meanwhile, HMDA spokespersons confirmed “Incentives through discounts and similar means have been initiated at the planning level for developers undertaking new constructions.”

Furthermore, with alternative eco-friendly materials like Fly Ash available in the market, the HMDA is vying to woo builders into adopting the newer materials, which when adopted “should reduce running costs and the impact on the environment significantly,” revealed a spokesperson at the HMDA. Officials at the organisation also noted that “by adopting simple design measures, which ensure better airflow and insulation, the house or site owner can cut power costs by a significant percentage, which would translate to a lower overall running cost on the site in the long run.”

As such, the HMDA has made arrangements to introduce subsidised photovoltaic cell technologies like solar heaters among house owners, under the State Ministry’s scheme on Solar Photovoltaic Systems and Devices for Urban Areas. Moving beyond the local level, the HMDA also announced a one-time incentive of Rs 50 lakh to Municipal Corporations and Rs 25 lakh to other Urban Local Bodies, who would announce rebates in property tax for energy efficient buildings rated under the ‘Griha’ scheme, and undertake similar steps like introducing compulsory ratings of public sector owned buildings under the scheme and engage in large-scale promotion of ‘green’ buildings in their area.