The Delhi Development Authority is offering extra ground coverage and FAR to green builders.

◊ By Meghna Jain

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) recently approved regulations for the construction of green buildings in the capital, offering incentives of 1 to 5 percent extra ground coverage and floor area ratio (FAR) to green builders (incentives will be implemented after notifications from the central government). It has also proposed that local bodies render 10 percent rebate on property tax/service charges for such buildings. The incentives have been announced by the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and will be released by local development authorities. Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (GRIHA) Council will award ratings to projects that wish to avail these incentives.

In order to promote the concept in the capital, DDA has included the green building concept in its Master Plan of Delhi 2021 (MPD-2021) and is coming up with several beneficiary offers such as reduced energy and water bills to improved building occupant productivity. DDA has also mandated recycling of treated waste water with separate lines for potable and recycled water, ground water recharge through rainwater harvesting, and use of solar heating systems. If house owners adhere to these norms, the local bodies or municipal corporations will incentivise the public by way of a property tax reduction on a case-to-case basis.

“The general public will benefit in term of incentives such as additional FAR, property tax rebates and so on, in order to ensure provision of all green building related structures post occupancy. Public agencies and local bodies will also benefit due to the reduction in demand for water supply, less generation of solid waste, less power consumption and so on,” informs an official from Planning, MPD- 2021, DDA. Now the buildings which are to be constructed under the MPD-2021 will have to follow green norms.

Other green incentives in the MPD envisages an integrated approach that packages mutually supportive infrastructure components, ie, water-sewerage-drainage for recycling, harvesting and optimal use of water, solid waste-sewerage-power for power generation, and so on. Innovative techniques for the use of alternative technologies like solar energy, recycling, and so on, will also to be encouraged. Also, unconventional energy sources like recovering energy from sewerage and solar energy, for example, would be used for street lighting, lighting at public spaces, open areas, traffic signals, hoardings, etc.

The question that arises here is: can the incentives be misused? “In order to ensure post completion monitoring of the above provisions, the concerned local bodies have been advised to provide incentives in terms of property tax and so on. A bank guarantee taken from those availing of green FAR will be seized in case it is misused and property tax rebate will also be taken back. Our intention is to make it as foolproof as possible,” adds the DDA official.

The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), which has developed the green rating GRIHA, is working with DDA. Chitrangada Bisht, programme officer, area convenor, GRIHA Council, TERI, says, “GRIHA lays down a set of 34 criteria that has to be adhered to by the builder before he is granted the final rating after rigorous audits and checks followed through the construction process. GRIHA Council awards GRIHA rating to projects after assessing their performance on various green building parameters such as sustainable site planning, building design, energy efficiency, water efficiency, sustainable materials and health and well being.”

This article appeared in the October 2015 issue of Pure & Eco India.