CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Housing Board will go in for green building by incorporating features that are energy and water efficient and will help to keep the cost in check , Managing Director M. Rajaram said on Saturday.

Addressing reporters here, Mr. Rajaram said the green building concept, which had caught up in the last five years, would make use of light-weight concrete material, heat-resistant glass, solar energy, thermal comfort, rainwater harvesting, glass-filled gazing and reflective coating. These features would result in less consumption of power and water.

Architectural design

The Board was planning to construct a multi-storey office complex, incorporating all these features, at SAF village in Koyembedu. The architectural design was being finalised. The complex would be given for government, corporations and private concerns, he said.

Cellular concrete plant

The Board would take over the cellular concrete plant at Ennore, which remained closed for the last 15 years. The plant would make cellular concrete using fly ash.

The Ennore thermal plant had agreed to supply fly ash free of cost.

Earlier, he inaugurated a seminar on "green building," organised by the Board and the Confederation of Indian Industries, Hyderabad.

Pleasing environment

S.C. Kumar, Advisor, CII, said awareness of green buildings was growing. They would reduce the energy cost by 40-50 per cent and water consumption by 30-40 per cent. They would use recycled and reusable materials. The green house buildings would provide a pleasing environment for employees, which in turn would improve their productivity.

The day was not far-off when it would become an economic necessity for builders to adopt the concept.

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