CII-Indian Green Building Council has launched the IGBC Green High-Speed Rail Rating System during an exclusive session with National High-Speed Rail Corporation Limited (NHSRCL).
IGBC acknowledged the leadership of Achal Khare, Managing Director, NHSRCL in opening new perspectives on how Indian High-Speed Rail project can become a green role model.
The rating system was launched online on June 21 by Achal Khare and V Suresh, Chairman, IGBC and was attended by industry leaders and expert of transit sector.
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V Suresh, in a statement said, “The IGBC Green HSR rating system is a first-of-its-kind rating system in the world. The rating system is developed aligning the requirements with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
“India has gained the unique distinction of ‘Greening the Transit Development like Airports, Metros & now Hi-Speed Rail. IGBC Green MRTS Rating has been developed with the support of MoHUA, DMRC & Other Metro Rail Authorities & Industry stakeholders,” he said.
India is pioneering the green metro movement with 600+ metros stations from 13 metro authorities creating newer benchmarks in embracing the green concepts and setting ambitious environmental targets for the coming decades, he said. Based on the metro experience, IGBC has developed the rating programme for high speed rail projects to facilitate HSR projects to showcase the model of green transit to the world, he added.
Achal Khare said, “This exclusive green rating programme for High Speed Rail (HSR) developed by CII-IGBC would help NHSRCL to ensure adoption of unique & futuristic green concepts during designing, construction and operations phases of Mumbai-Ahmedabad HSR corridor. Rain water harvesting mechanism, solar panels to harness solar power and waste water treatment plants have already been incorporated in the station designs, depots and viaducts construction. The certified Green building material, products and equipment will also be used for the construction of HSR.”
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“The MAHSR stations are being planned as Green buildings as they will have many eco-friendly features including natural light provisions and ventilation. The stations will be integrated with other modes of transport to facilitate intermodal commuter transport,” he said.
Benefits
By adopting the rating tool, the HSR projects would achieve various tangible and intangible benefits including operational savings through reduction in electrical energy consumption towards non-traction upto 10 per cent and water consumption reduction upto 30 per cent, effective C&D waste management towards zero waste to landfill.
As on date, over 6,540 green building projects, amounting to over 7.83 billion sq.ft of green building footprint are adopting IGBC green standards for buildings and built-environment. IGBC aspires to facilitate 10 billion sq.ft of green building footprint by 2022.