'Green Building' Tag Only To Boost Sales in Mumbai

Bangalore: Most of the residential projects tagged under ‘green building’ may not be green in real sense in Mumbai, one among the top traditional property market in India. Home buyers need to check properly when planning to buy a green property as many luxury residential projects are generously tagging the project as ‘green building’ only to increase sales. Eco-friendly projects are accepted widely in India as people have become conscious about healthy lifestyle.  

Last year, the state has come up with a new scheme where ‘green’ certified buildings will be given priority for environmental clearance and it takes more than a year and a half to obtain this certificate for conventional buildings. But, considering the ‘green building’ is in current trend, the scheme has got poor response. Valsa Nair Singh, secretary of environment department stated that “Only five in 300 buildings are availing of the incentive at the moment,” reports Times of India.

According to Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), green building requires less water, less energy, preserves natural resources, generates less waste and offers healthy lifestyle when compared to a traditional building.

However, the reason behind the poor response can be the process of securing an official green certificate as the process is bit lengthy and can costs in lakhs as well, said a senior state official. “Construction material and technologies for green certification raise the cost of a project by at least 10 percent,” he further added.

Sunil Mantri of Mantri Realty said that obtaining a green certificate is indeed a challenge. “I did not know about the incentive even though I have three ongoing green-certified projects in Mumbai. “Even green projects have to go through the normal channel,” said Mantri, reports TOI.

Mantri further said that the state government needs to come up with measure that will encourage the green trend.

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