New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS) Delhi government Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI) to make “greener” 100 city buildings, including the Delhi Secretariat and the Delhi chief minister’s residence.
Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, state Environment and Forests Secretary Dharmendra and TERI’s Director General R.K. Pachauri, who is also chaireprson of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, were present on the occasion.

“The government has tied up with TERI to retrofit 100 existing buildings above 10,000 square feet to make them energy efficient,” said an official statement here.

Speaking at the function, Dikshit said: “This is just the beginning. For us, energy and water conservation is extremely important. We will carry on with this programme as it is a part of sustainability and growth of the world. Our efforts such as banning plastic bags, making the Commonwealth Games green are steps to preserve our environment.”

Elaborating on the importance of such measures, Pachauri said: “This is indeed another example of a forward looking initiative led by the dynamic chief minister of Delhi. Delhi should be the leading city to take such initiatives to adopt changes that are inevitably required to protect our planet.”

He suggested that a fund should be set up and adequate support should be given as incentives to encourage people and that all new buildings may be subjected to GRIHA — Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment - rating system.

Discussing the issue of funding, Dikshit said that Rs.70 crore (Rs.700 million) is available with the government to be used for such initiatives.

TERI-CCI (Clinton Climate Initiative) will provide support to the building owners in identifying, designing and implementing large scale energy efficiency building retrofit projects and bringing the owner together with the necessary contracting and financial firms for implementation.

“This initiative presents a good opportunity to make the office buildings, commercial complexes and other buildings energy efficient through retrofits giving guaranteed savings, and the investments paid back through the savings,” the statement added.