By IANS,
New Delhi : President Pranab Mukherjee Thursday called for the adoption of GRIHA, a national rating system for green buildings to boost public and private sector construction of environment friendly buildings.
“Adoption of GRIHA by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and the National Building Construction Corporation Ltd. (NBCC) should give a fillip to both the public and private sector to construct environment friendly buildings in a big way,” Mukherjee said.
The president was addressing a national conference on green design organised by The The Energy Resources Institute (TERI) and the ministry of new and renewable energy. The tool was developed by TERI.
By its qualitative and quantitative assessment criteria, the GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) is able to ‘rate’ a building on the degree of its environment friendliness.
The tool developed by TERI has been adopted by the new and renewable energy ministry.
The president also strongly urged state governments to ensure construction of sustainable habitats.
“It is imperative that in the light of looming challenges of water and electricity availability, states where a significant part of construction is yet to take place should ensure construction of sustainable habitats,” he said.
Highlighting that electricity consumed by the buildings sector is about 35 percent of total electricity consumption in India, Mukherjee said increased energy efficiency in the building sector and utilisation of renewable energy are key strategies to contain growing energy demand.
In a context where India would need to add about 76,000 MW capacity of power through the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-16) to meet the nine percent growth rate demand, management of power becomes a priority, Mukherjee said.
The president said the continuing increase in population and growth of the economy, along with rapid urbanisation, has led to an enormous demand for buildings in India.
“This (demand for buildings), in turn, is leading to a huge increase in demand for electricity in new and existing buildings. Simultaneously, the diminishing availability of water is becoming a serious challenge,” Mukherjee added.