'Stringent measures needed for green technology in realty'

MUMBAI: As India is expected to witness rapid urbanisation, the new government at the Centre needs to take stringent measures to ensure use of green technology in the construction and realty space, according to experts.

"After a period of slowdown, we now expect to see a growth in the construction and property markets. Having presented the current scenario, it becomes quite clear that much more needs to be done in a country as vast and as rapidly urbanising as ours," CBRE South Asia Chairman and Managing Director Anshuman Magazine said.

He said there was a paramount need for more stringent government measures to inculcate the use of green technology in the construction and real estate sectors.

According to a recent study by the US Green Building Council (USGBC) for LEED outside of the US, India has ranked third in the list after China, while Canada topped the green rankings.

Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), a division of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has taken a number of initiatives for building capacity and services of green buildings in the country.

Currently, the Council has certified nearly 2.07 billion sq/ft of green footprints in India and has set a target of 10 billion sq/ft by 2022.

At present, there are 200-plus LEED rated green buildings in India, about 40 IGBC green factory buildings and almost 250 IGBC rated green homes.

"We have been taking several initiatives to ensure green and sustainable built environment for all. We had followed up with the earlier government to make it mandatory on developers to adopt green technologies. Though things did not move at the pace we had expected, IGBC will now pursue it with the new government," IGBC Chairman Prem Jain said.