CII inks MoU with NHB to promote green housing

Industry body CII today inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with National Housing Bank to promote adoption of energy efficient green homes in the country.

The MoU was signed between Indian Green Builidng Council (IGBC) of CII and NHB during the first edition of confernece on green apartments here today.

"The purpose of this MoU is to jointly enhance and promote the adoption of energy efficient and green homes concept in India," CII said in a statement.

The MoU, signed in presence of Arun Kumar Misra, Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation, was inked between Chairman of IGBC Prem C Jain and NHB Executive Director Arnab Roy.

Misra said going green is an imperative to ensure a sustainable tomorrow.

MoU inked today will go a long way in promoting green homes and facilitate India emerge as one of the global leaders in green buildings, Misra said.

He said the Ministry would extend all the support to work with IGBC in taking forward the green home concept to the mass housing sector.

"NHB with the support of IGBC would offer the fund to home

finance companies that are willing to transfer the benefit of concessional interest to buyers of green and energy-efficient homes," Roy said.

IGBC Green Homes is the first rating programme developed in India, exclusively for the residential sector, Jain said.

As many as 750 homes project in the country are already going green with IGBC accounting to more than 4,50,000 dwelling units with a building footprint of over 680 million square feet, he added.