Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday
inaugurated Environment
Ministry's new office - a green building which
has adopted several measures to save energy.
The Prime Minister was briefed
about the various energy saving and energy generating features of the building,
Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, by
Environment Minister Veerappa Moily and Ministry officials. Speaking on the
building, the Minister said, "This is a very unique structure and it has five blocks named after the five elements
of nature namely earth, air, sky, water and fire. This also corresponds to
our senses." He said the building with its large solar panels, is
"self sufficient in terms of power and we can even sell some power to the
grid. It is the best building in the
country and has been developed by the CPWD." Moily said the logo of
the building has been designed by the National Institute of Design which
captures "the concept of the green building. The motif is of tiger, which
is our national animal along with the national
aquatic animal gangetic dolphin."
He credited his predecessor and Rural
Development Minister Jairam Ramesh for the idea behind setting up of the
building. Moily termed the increasing use of diesel cars as a "matter of
concern" and said the Government was promoting the use of CNG and PNG as
fuel in cars. He said a proposal to make vehicles adhere to Bharat 5 standards
of emission was "making good progress" as the Government is keen to
cut down pollution drastically. Speaking on the occasion, Ramesh said the
"new building has been able to cut down on air conditioning load from
1,000 tonnes to 500 tonnes. If all buildings are built like this, we would be
able to meet our greenhouse gas emission targets." Cutting air conditioning load by using
innovative methods such as geo thermal and solar energy will help in cutting
energy requirements, he said.
