By IANS,
Mumbai : Mumbai-based infrastructure major Hindustan Construction Company has got the rare distinction of being the only Indian company to feature in the Climate Report released by the UN Global Compact and UN Environment Programme, an official said here Wednesday.
The UN report, titled “Caring Business & Climate Change Adaptation: Toward Resilient Companies & Communities” presents 10 case studies from around the world.
The case studies illustrate how businesses are responding creatively and effectively to address climate change opportunities, risks and impact in developing countries and emerging economies.
HCC’s initiatives feature along with Coca Cola, Nokia and Eskom among the 10 global companies featured in the report, an official said.
The HCC case study highlights its efforts towards water neutrality and focuses on two of its projects, the ‘strategic oil storage cavern project’, in Visakhapatnam and Delhi-Faridabad Elevated Expressway.
In Visakhapatnam, HCC has installed a waste water treatment plant to utilise the seepage waste water for construction, thus completing construction without external water supply to the project even during severe water scarcity in the region.
Installation of the plant enabled us to recycle and reuse nearly 95 percent of the waste water for drilling, dust suppression, concrete curing and other activities, saving an amount of water equivalent to nearly half year’s supply for the entire city of Vizag, the official explained.
On the Delhi-Faridabad Expressway, owing to the low rainfall in that region, HCC implemented several measures to conserve, recycle and reuse water, including creating an artificial rainfall-fed pond and rooftop rainwater harvesting.
The most notable part was a unique model for harvesting run-off rainwater from the expressway itself as a way to recharge aquifers in the surrounding areas, the official said.
HCC chairman and managing director Ajit Gulabchand termed the development as a great honour for the company and the country that an Indian company features among the 10 companies at a global level.
HCC was the first Indian signatory to the CEO Water Mandate, comprising more than 80 companies whose chief executives have committed to individual and collective action to advance water stewardship in their own operations as well as their supply chains, watersheds and communities.
A Rs.8,157 crore entity, the HCC group has built nearly 25 percent of India’s hydel power projects, 50 percent of nuclear power generation capacities, over 3,100 km of expressways and highways, over 200 km of tunnels, over 325 bridges and other landmark projects, including the Lavasa hill city near Pune.