<div>Imagine this: a home to call your own that is situated in the lap of nature; a lush abundance of greenery all around you; walking and jogging tracks where you and your pet are both welcome; a community hall where weekends are spent catching up with family and neighbors; a shopping market where all your daily needs can be bought under one roof.<br /><br />Now imagine that all this comes with a carbon-free existence. No need to worry about leaving carbon-footprints behind you, as you go about your daily chores. In fact, to take it further, imagine living in a space that has been built with a green conscience.<br /><br />India’s perennially-mobile working class population ensures that the country’s infrastructure is always under pressure. From water shortage to unemployment; from sanitation woes to the mismatch between demand and supply of housing – our urban planners are always in a fix to constantly provide basic amenities to its billion-plus population.<br /><br />Consultancy firm Boston Consulting Group estimates that by 2020, 35 per cent of our population will have moved to cities, whether in search of employment or education.<br /><br />Now imagine each of these million souls looking for a house that they can afford that too in our metros.<br /><br />Their needs and desires put them in a category of ‘Urban Aspirers’ – those living in cities and aspiring to climb the social/professional ladder.<br /><br />Exorbitant real estate prices might mean that buying a house might just remain a dream for these aspiring millions!<br /><br />In fact, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation (MHUPA) estimates that the housing shortage for the 11th Five Year Plan will be 26.53 million dwelling units.<br /><br />Will these million people spend the next 30 years of their young, working class life living under rented accommodation, spending half their income on a house that barely looks like one?<br /><br />The answer lays in Integrated Township, a concept where mix land use provides a solution to the problems of these souls.<br /><br /><strong>Living With Humanity</strong><br />Given that our cities will be under so much pressure from this sea of urbanisation, planners and developers together need to recognixe the importance of integrated townships in our city-limits. The appeal of integrated townships lays in the fact that it puts affordability, convenience and focus on lifestyle in one very attractive package. <br /><br />In cities like Mumbai, where public transport is strong, previously far-flung areas like Boisar are now becoming easily accessible and the chosen area to reside for this aspirer population.<br /><br />So a housing society can enjoy, community hall, playgrounds, green landscaped seating area, shopping markets, jogging tracks, parking spaces, rainwater harvesting, bus connectivity to main bus stops, railway/metro/mono rail stations and more.<br /><br />Research suggests this mixed land use policy will emerge in the future. Mixed use for urban infill sites create jobs and cater to the residential requirements. Integrated townships having a good mix of employment opportunities offer residents a walk-to-comfort. A mixed-use development is not a standardised product form, but due to high land costs in the urban settings most developers are setting up integrated townships in the suburban locations. <br /> <br />Factors making the mixed-use development popular from the developer’s perspective are:</div><ul><li>Convenience of live-work-play options in a single location</li><li>Satisfying the desire to live in more of a small-town (e.g. "Main Street") environment.</li><li>Reducing traffic congestion</li><li> Encouragement by local public agencies</li></ul><div><strong>Sustainable Living<br /></strong>A point to consider here is that such large-scale urbanisation brings with it a number of evils. Take a simple object for further explanation: the ubiquitous plastic bag that every individual walking on the street has used in some form or other.<br /><br />Or the usual yellow-coloured lamps that almost every household has. Now multiply this one bag into a billion-plus population that is using it every day, maybe 5 times a day. The resultant number is downright scary.<br /><br />Similarly, each industry leaves behind its legacy of such carbon lamps or plastic bags. It is with this urban reality, that developers are now recognizing the importance of integrated sustainable townships. A township which has the above-mentioned facilities yet is built to leave behind zero carbon foot prints.<br /><br />The real estate industry has developed a concept of ‘sustainable design', wherein an integrated approach is adopted, in order to deliver holistic projects to consumers. <br /><br />The importance of Sustainable Development is gaining recognition and developers are increasingly adapting green practices, thereby bringing-in environmental benefits in a holistic way to communities. <br /><br />The main objective of Sustainable Green Design is to avoid depletion of natural resources and prevent environmental degradation caused by facilities and infrastructure.<br /><br />While some buildings are pre-certified based on conformance of design specifications and best practices, several organisations also approve buildings only after rigorously documenting the occupancy phase. The building phase is monitored closely to ensure there is minimal damage to nature. This includes mandates like net-zero energy and water use, which must be maintained over the full trial year of occupancy; monitoring the use of banned material including halogenated flame retardants, PVC plastics, and chlorofluorocarbons. <br /><br />All environmental conscious SSOs and SDOs like LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design), GRIHA (Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment) and IGBC (Indian Green Building Council ) have aided in developing technical and safety standards.<br /><br />Living with HUMANITY and living WITH humanity can come to mean the same thing in such integrated sustainable townships. <br /><br />(<em>The author is Mr. Brotin Banerjee, MD & CEO, Tata Housing</em>)<br /><br /> </div>
