The guidelines for large developments under the green rating for integrated habitat assessment (GRIHA) will be out by end of this year, Siva Kishan, the CEO of GRIHA secretariat told Governance Now. “They would be out in November or December,” he said.

Integrated townships, new urban complexes, townships and campuses will constitute the large developments. “We already have 60 queries from various institutes like Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institute of Management (IIMs) etc.,” added Kishan. He said that once the guidelines were out, the existing projects will be migrated to the scheme under GRIHA.

Kishan said that these guidelines were important as people would realize how important it is to save energy and water.

“We are training architects to make them realise the importance of green buildings and townships,” an official from the ministry of new and renewable said. He said that the ministry wanted architects to learn the technique of green habitats and then convince builders to build them. “We want to popularise green buildings as soon as possible,” he added.

Association for Development and Research of Sustainable Habitats (ADARSH) will evolve the new norms for large residential complexes. It gives green ratings for individual buildings as of now.