NOIDA Authority and GRIHA Council with support from the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Government of India, Architects Association Noida Zone (AANZ) and CREDAI recently held a one-day awareness programme ´Sustainable Habitats the GRIHA way´. GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) is India´s indigenous rating system adopted and endorsed by Ministry of New and Renewable Energy as the national rating system to assess environmental performance of buildings for our country. Key stakeholders at the programme deliberated upon the process and mechanism to avail the GRIHA linked FAR being offered by NOIDA and Greater NOIDA towards design and construction of environment friendly buildings in the region.The programme was graced by key decision-makers of real estate domain of the region. Rama Raman, Chairman and CEO NOIDA, Manoj Rai, OSD, NOIDA, Smt Leenu Sehgal, General Manager, Planning, Greater NOIDA, Getamber Anand, President CREDAI and Atul Gupta, President AANZ graced the occasion as speakers.
In her welcome address, Ms. Mili Majumdar, Secretary cum Treasurer, GRIHA Council said, ´NOIDA and Greater NOIDA have been pioneers in incentivising green buildings by way of providing FAR incentives for developers, which has also been emulated by other States. We hope to work closely with the NOIDA, Greater Noida and YEIDA Authorities and local municipal bodies to ensure robust, transparent and on site compliance of GRIHA requirements in the region. We look forward to a stronger collaboration with CREDAI and AANZ to ensure greater awareness generation, capacity building and on site compliance.´
Chief Guest Rama Raman, Chairman and CEO NOIDA Authority remarked in his address, ´We should build green not just for incentive but for the cause behind it as well. It is time that we thought about using our resources intelligently.´ While stressing on the fact that the architect is the key stakeholder and responsible for bringing this change in building industry, he said, ´Efforts should be made to convince owners making them understand ROI.´ He also announced the proposal regarding incentivising individual houses for installing RE in terms of taxes or fee relaxation. He also talked of initiative where polyethylene bags can be used as an alternative to coal tar, and instructed his teams to initiate this in Noida. He announced 15 days of Green Noida Abhiyan from 4th July where trees will be planted.´
The programme was held in the background of the fact that NOIDA and Greater NOIDA have announced an additional FAR of 5%, at no cost for applicants that construct green buildings through GRIHA and other rating systems. The objective here was to mainstream design and construction of green buildings in the region.
NOIDA, Greater NOIDA, Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority, Architects Association Noida Zone, CREDAI and MNRE were partners with GRIHA Council for the programme.