India second only to US in green building footprint

With the concept of green buildings having gained a lot of momentum in Mumbai, as per the Indian Green Building Congress (IGBC), nearly ten more complexes will now be counted as green buildings. These include ICICI Bank at Bandra-Kurla Complex and Reserve Bank of India staff quarters in Goregaon.

Mumbai’s existing green structures include J.W. Marriot in Sahar, Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation office, Kotak Mahindra, and Bank of India. Twenty more structures have joined the initiative including ICICI Bank’s corporate office in Bandra-Kurla Complex, Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Tata Power Company Ltd, the international terminal (T2) of Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. and Reliance Corporate IT Park.

Maharashtra currently has 1,124 green buildings registered with the IGBC. Its contribution takes India’s registered green building footprint to 3.86 billion square feet, which is second only to the US.

Speaking to The Asian Age, IGBC chairman, Prem C. Jain, said, “Mumbai alone contributes to 12 per cent of the total green buildings in Maharashtra and is seeing continuous increase in the number of green buildings. The big names in real estate have now started coming up with green projects.”

Ar Tai Lee Siang, chairman, World Green Building Council said India was one of the top ten nations progressing towards green buildings.