Ghazipur landfill: Need to find a permanent solution, says Gautam Gambhir

In July this year, the Prime Minister’s Office had to step in to seek help from global experts after an international publication said that the landfill would rise higher than Qutub Minar and the Taj Mahal in the next few years.

Gambhir also emphasized on the need to strengthen public transport system in the national capital to check pollution and traffic congestion.

Kunal Kumar, joint secretary and mission director (smart cities), Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry, said it is imperative to drive green ideas in view of rapid urbanisation.

As much as 90 percent of urbanization that is going to happen in the future is going to happen in India, Nigeria and the South African countries. So it is imperative for all of us to drive this going forward, he said.

“If we can come up with some deliberations on business models that will succeed in cities, on regulations that cities should adopt, on ways that can promote redevelopment in cities. We would be the first ones at the smart cities mission to go forward at doing it,” he said.

He also said that the Climate Smart Cities initiative was floated six months back.  “All our 100 smart cities are actually getting assessed on climate, there is a huge programme we have created in the backend on our cities. These form five verticals – green buildings, mobility, air, water and wastewater management and biodiversity. We are not only building capacities of the cities but also rating them on climate preparedness and incentivizing them to move towards greener outcomes by funding cities that actually create better outcomes going forward in for the future,” Kumar said.

The climate smart cities programme would roll out with the first report in the month of October. “We are trying to coincide this with the 150^th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi and we hope to take this forward to all the 4000 cities going forward to make a serious impact,” he added.

Aditya Berlia, Vice Chairman of CII Delhi State, said, "Facility management is at the interface of tenants, investors, contractors and local authorities and thus, they are on the front line of implementing any plans to increase a building's sustainability."

Speaking at the conference, Rajesh Pandit, MD (GWS and PM) CBRE South Asia said, "With investors taking increasing note of environmental risk, it is important for facility management to be proactive in enhancing building-level sustainability."

Experts concluded that green buildings are not only extremely efficient, but also produce enough power to cover their own energy requirements and can even send excess energy back into the power grid. Solar power is the most widely tested method for renewable energy.

Photovoltaic cells can be installed not only on rooftops but also on building facades and even in transparent modules used as windows and skylights. Another key influencing sustainability factor is the inclusion of WELL Buildings and LEED certification as part of the built environment, experts said at the conference.