Hyderabad: Telangana state is yet to incentivise Indian Green Building Council (IGBC)-rated green buildings; other states, including Andhra Pradesh, are already giving incentives for such buildings.
The CII-IGBC had written to the Chief Secretary of the state, S.K. Joshi, in July, asking the government to incentivise green buildings by reducing the permit and impact fee by 20 per cent, encouraging solar roof-tops, and reducing water and sewage tariff by 10 per cent.
Rajasthan, Punjab, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Jharkhand have already incentivised IGBC-rated green buildings.
According to C. Shekar Reddy, chairman, IGBC, “This has led to multi-fold benefits for the states in reduction in power consumption, water efficiency, waste segregation at source and management and, ultimately, quality of life for citizens.”
Several states accord faster clearance in building permission and electrical and water connections to pre-certified and certified green buildings.
In the event of projects not complying with green building certification norms, a penalty is levied. The municipal administration and urban development department of Andhra Pradesh offers 20 per cent reduction on permit fees and one-time reduction of 20 per cent on duty on transfer of property. The industries and commerce department offers 25 per cent on total fixed capital investment of the project for Micro Small Medium Enterprises and large industries.
Mr Reddy says that in Telangana, rebate in property tax of 10 per cent was incorporated in Government Order 168 for projects that installed and used solar heating and lighting systems, recycled waste and did rain water harvesting, but “government departments are not implementing it and eventually the benefit was not extended to the projects after execution.”
The letter from CII-IGBC was sent in July, and IGBC is still awaiting a response from the government.
According to the present building by-laws, residential buildings meet 32 features of the IGBC green building rating system. In order to achieve the minimum rating level (certified level 50 credits), additional measures must be incorporated in the building by-laws to encourage wider adoption of green building norms.
S Srinivas, principal adviser, CII-Godrej GBC underlined that over 300 projects in Telangana State have adopted the IGBC green building rating system. “The young state will play an important role in accelerating the adoption and promotion of green buildings and built-environment across the country. The Green Building Congress 2018 will facilitate increased uptake of green building projects,” he said.
