Go green, reap benefits, says GHMC Commissioner

HYDERABAD: Do you know that setting up a solar water heater system in your residence, apartments or commercial building entitles you to a 10 per cent discount on property tax? Or that installing a rain water harvesting system too provides you a chance to bag a discount of 10 per cent? GHMC Commissioner MT Krishna Babu on Wednesday revealed this lesser known clause in the GO 86 of the Building Act Rules during his inaugural address at the conference on ‘Use of Green Energy in Urban Infrastructure’ organised by the Federation of Andhra Pradesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FAPCCI). Pointing to examples of hotels like Taj Banjara and The Park, which avail 20 per cent discounts on their property tax amounting to `2.5-3 crore annually due to the above mentioned facilities in place, he asked all building owners to maximise savings through the discounts available. “We are planning to further reduce the city level impact fee depending on building rating (as per international green building standards) and will include offices and commercial buildings under the first phase of the proposed plan. Apart from incentives, it makes commercial sense for companies to adopt green technologies by way of efficient lighting and cooling systems,” the Commissioner added.He was also critical of the low efficiencies of most electrical installations in private and government offices in the city. “We have received proposals by companies promising a reduction of 30-35 per cent in energy consumption.” His views on energy auditing in the city also extended to the need to automate street lamps on the model being currently tested on a pilot basis in Rajahmundry district.“There is scope to reduce our energy demand by at least 25 per cent by shifting to energy efficient devices. Rough calculations show that if that were to happen, we can save around 800 MT (metric tonnes) of coal or 12 MUs (million units) of energy per day,” he opined. He also expressed interest in the upcoming scheme of individual homes installing rooftop solar panels and said that the decreasing cost of solar energy would help initiate some action on the same within two years in Hyderabad.On the city’s garbage problems, the Commissioner expressed the hope that innovative entrepreneurs would come forward with new techniques to handle and recycle the ever accumulating garbage, the collection of 1 MT of which, presently costs the corporation close to Rs 1600 daily. “This amount will rise in the near future. Also it’s not economical to transport the garbage till the dump yard at Jawahar Nagar which may be several kilometres away in most cases. Decentralisation of garbage management is the answer to this problem and we welcome any idea towards the same.”