Green building policy rollout on government radar

PUNE: Soon, all residential and commercial buildings will have to abide by the state government’s green building policy. The state urban development department (UDD) is keen to implement the policy after receiving suggestions and objections from all stakeholders.
Principal secretary, UDD, Nitin Kareer told TOI that the green building policy would be implemented soon, and all parameters were being checked. ‘The policy will be implemented soon,’’ he said, stating that the government was keen on factoring in the environmental concerns with the state envisaging huge boost in construction sector. The policy would be applicable for all upcoming commercial as well as residential buildings.

Commercial buildings include offices, IT parks, banks, shopping malls, hotels, hospitals, airports, stadiums, convention centers, education institutes, libraries and museums as per the state government draft.

The green building policy was proposed by the state urban development department in November to ensure that the state government gives permission only to green buildings in the future. Developers too had evinced interest in the policy provided the “cost factor” issues were addressed.

It was in November that the government had published the draft of the green building policy and ensured incentives for buyers and developers to invest in green buildings.

The buyers of property in the green buildings would be entitled to a property tax rebate for a period of five years based on the green building rating of the property secured from empowered agencies. The buyer of a property having a five-star or platinum rating would receive a rebate of 10 percent on property tax, while those with four-star, gold, three-star or silver ratings would get a rebate of 7.5 percent and 5 percent respectively on property tax.

According to the policy, the municipal corporation can choose to award additional incentives over and above the incentives mentioned by the state government.

Similarly, the state government would provide a rebate on development charges in accordance with the rating secured by developers. Those with platinum rating would get a rebate of 7.5 per cent on development charges, while those with gold and silver ratings would receive a rebate of 5 and 2.5 per cent respectively on development charges.

It further said that as the construction of a green building would lead to a marginal increase in cost, the government had offered incentives to developers to ensure that the extra cost was not passed on to consumers.

source- Times of India