Indira Paryavaran Bhawan inaugurated by Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh, the Prime Minister of India on 25 February 2014 inaugurated Indira Paryavaran Bhawan on Jorbagh Road, New Delhi. This Bhawan will house the Ministry of Environment and Forest and has a provision to accommodate its 600 officials.

The Bhawan is India’s first on site Net Zero Building built by the adoption of Solar Passive design and energy efficient building material. This has been designed as the highest-green rated building i.e., GRIHA 5-Star and LEED India Platinum. The requirements of GRIHA 5-Star and LEEDS Platinum ratings have been achieved by adopting various measures some of which are as follows
• Effective Ventilation has been achieved by orientating the building in an East-West direction, separating different blocks with connecting corridors and having a large central court yard.
• The design is such that 75% of natural daylight is utilised to reduce energy consumption.
• The entire building has an access friendly design for differently-abled persons.
• With an Installed capacity of 930 KW peak power, the building has the largest roof top Solar system among Multi storied buildings in India.
• Total energy savings of about 40% has been achieved by adoption of energy Efficient Chilled Beam system of Air Conditioning. This is an innovative air conditioning system, where air conditioning is done by convection currents rather than air flow through diffusers and chilled water is circulated right up to the diffuser points unlike the conventional systems.
• Green materials have been used like Fly ash bricks, regional building materials, materials with high recycled content, high reflectance terrace tiles and rock wool Insulation of outer walls.
• Rapidly renewable Bamboo Jute Composite material has been used for door frames & shutters.
• UPVC windows with hermetically sealed double glass, Calcium Silicate ceiling tiles having high recycled content and grass paver blocks in pavements and roads.
• Reduction in water consumption has been achieved by use of Low discharge water fixtures, recycling of waste water through Sewage Treatment Plant, use of plants with Low water demand in landscaping, use of Geothermal cooling for HVAC system, rain water harvesting and use of curing compounds during construction.

This project has been developed at an expense of about 209 crore rupees. The Indira Paryavaran Bhavan building has already received the following awards:
• February 2013: The Project received an award from Adarsh/GRIHA of MNRE for exemplary demonstration of Integration of Renewable Energy Technologies
• January 2014: The Project was accorded 5-Star Green Building Certification by GRIHA under MNRE