The police station at Harni, Vadodara, has reduced energy bills by 25 per cent, optimised water usage and built cleaner and comfortable indoors using green infrastructure.
Harni police station in Vadodara, Gujarat, recently became the first green police building in India. They were certified as a silver green building under the evaluation of the Indian Green Building Council (IGBC). Adopting renewable energy and optimised resource utilisation strategies have helped the police station to go green and substantially reduce energy and resource wastage.
Setting up the green building
The project was envisaged and pushed by DCP (administration) Manish Singh, who wanted to transform the existing police building into an eco-friendly structure that will aid the various national environmental initiatives. Singh told the media that the initiative started in January 2018, following his meeting with the IGBC in December last year, where he was informed of the criteria required for achieving green building status.
The transformation came through several inclusions, like installation of solar panels and solar-powered appliances to utilise renewable energy for running the building, reducing water wastage by using smart meters, setting up rain water harvesting units for water storage, implementing proper waste disposal routines and more.
The result has been an energy bill reduction of 25 per cent, optimised water usage and cleaner interiors and surroundings. The indoors have an overall two to three degrees lower temperature compared to the outside. All these upgrades were made possible within a reasonable budget, as reported by Singh.
The Harni police station was specifically selected because of it having the city airport under its jurisdiction, which often is the channel to creating the first impression of the city’s administration on visitors.
Based on five environmental parameters, including energy efficiency, water efficiency, site management, facility management and health and comfort, the building received 61 points from the IGBC, cementing its Silver building status.
