Naya Raipur — the hi-tech new capital of Chhattisgarh which is being built around the ‘green concept’ for buildings and other infrastructure remained the focal point of discussion at the day-long national conference titled ‘Green Building and Building Rating System’ was organised at a private hotel here on Wednesday.
The conference was jointly organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PHDCCI) and Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.
The construction of Cycling tracks and efficient water harvesting were highlighted by Salil Rai Shrivastava, Chief Engineer of Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) .
The conference witnessed participation from the builders which was augmented by the knowledge sessions held by the academicians and practicing subject matter experts alike.
In his address, Chairman of Environment Committee, PHDCCI Ashish Rakheja said that the overall concept of green buildings is not a subject meant only for technocrats.
“It is something comprehensible and appealing to laymen as well. The basics of green building are all about making it environmentally friendly which ultimately leads to less consumption of energy and water,” he said.
The other speakers at the conference threw light on various aspects of green buildings.
In their address and presentations, they broadly spoke about the desired inputs, process involved and the takeaways pertaining to green buildings.
Sanjay Shukla, Secretary, Housing and Environment, Government of Chhattisgarh who was the chief guest on the occasion emphasised on the adoption of principles of green building and also talked about the builders’ interest in the process.
Sanjeev Jain, Chief Engineer from Chhattisgarh Renewable Energy Development Agency (CREDA), put forth a comparative analysis of the Energy Performance Index between India and other developed countries.
He came up with an enthusiastic and encouraging note to make green buildings a way of life.
Other speakers included Prof. Devasish Sanyal, Dr Meenakshi Sahu Thakur and others.
In their addresses they categorically mentioned that, Green Buildings had been in existence right since the ancient times.
The Conference was moderated by Kanchan Zutshi, Secretary, Environment Committee PHDCCI who emphasised that future is of Green Buildings and if we have to conserve our planet ,sustainable development is the need of the hour.
It may be recalled that in June this year, the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) had accorded ‘five star rating’ to the better energy efficiency practices to the State Mantralaya in Naya Raipur.
The high rating had been provided for better energy management in the Mantralaya’s offices.
The Mantralaya achieved the Energy Display Index of 81.49 which made it eligible for a high BEE rating, officials stated.
The BEE divides buildings and weather on five and three categories respectively under which buildings are categorised as ‘air conditioned’ and ‘non air conditioned’.
The Mantralaya had been accorded rating under ‘air conditioned’ and ‘mixed climate’.
The Mantralaya constructed by Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) has a developed area of 64,162 square meters out of which 68 per cent is air conditioned. The total annual power consumption of the Mantralaya building is 57,27,260 Kilowatt.
Moreover, the new capital is also being supplied 1.1 MW power from non conventional sources.
Incidentally, the NRDA is installing lED street lights along with elaborate infrastructure development for power supply on Non Motorable Transport (NMT) roads at a cost Rs 5.86 crore.
The lED lighting cannot be stolen by anybody and is fully automated which is also known as ‘Smart Street lighting Control’.
The entire system is be connected through a laptop through GPRS and any tampering with the lights triggers an SMS message, officials stated.
Moreover, the Centre has approved Raipur and Bilaspur to be developed as ‘Solar cities’ in Chhattisgarh.
So far, 55 existing cities in 27 States/UTs are being developed as solar cities in the country under ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme', senior government officials stated.
In fact, Raipur city was the only city among nine other cities in the country which was chosen by the Centre among the ‘Pilot Solar Cities’ for implementation of its ambitious ‘Development of Solar Cities Programme’ in 2013-14,as per the 2013-14 annual report of the Union Ministry of New and Renewable Energy for 2013-14.
The other eight cities chosen for 'Pilot Solar Cities' programmes were-Rajkot, Faridabad, Shimla, Thane, Shirdi, Aizwal, Amritsar and Agartala.
As per the report, the development of the ‘Solar Cities Programme’ aims at minimum 10 per cent reduction in the projected demand of conventional energy at the end of five years, the report stated.
The aforesaid objectives are to be achieved through a combination of energy efficient measures and enhancing supply from renewable energy sources, it stated.
The Ministry assists the municipal corporations and the urban local bodies in preparation of a Master Plan for increasing energy efficiency and renewable energy supply in the city, setting up institutional arrangements for the implementation of the Master Plan and the awareness generation and capacity building activities. The Centre had set the target of supporting 60 cities/towns for development as ‘solar/green cities’.
Under the programme, during 2013-14, a total of 46 cities were sanctioned of which Master Plan of 39 cities were finalized.
The pilot project on the Grid Interactive rooftop small SPV power plant project was successfully implemented in ‘Chandigarh Model Solar City.’ This has demonstrated the feasibility of small grid connected SPV Rooftop in the country, it stated.