Indian Express 22.12.2009
Mayor calls for more eco-friendly civic hospitals
All civic hospital in the city should be made eco-friendly by adopting the green building concept, said Mayor Shraddha Jadhav on Sunday. She was speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Kohinoor Hospital in Kurla — the super-specialty hospital has been certified with the Platinum rating under the LEED India (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Green building rating system.
“The cost of this eco-friendly, 175-bed hospital project is about Rs 100 crore. The BMC can certainly afford this kind of amount to ensure that its future hospital projects adhere to the green building standards,” said Jadhav at the function also attended by Chief Minister Ashok Chavan and Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray.
Spread over two lakh sq ft, the hospital is part of Kohinoor City promoted by Unmesh Joshi, son of former Lok Sabha speaker and Sena leader Manohar Joshi.
The hospital claims to have been designed accordingly to use resources like energy, water, material and land more efficiently than usual buildings. Its features include provision for natural lighting and better air quality with special carbon dioxide sensors that emit fresh air every time the CO2 levels exceed a specific level. It boasts of being the second in the world, after Dell Children’s Medical Centre in Texas, USA, to be awarded LEED platinum certification.
‘City should tap seawater, says CM
Speaking at the function, CM Ashok Chavan said Maharashtra will soon tap its 720-km coastline to generate drinking water. Mayor Shraddha Jadhav and Uddhav Thackeray also endorsed the idea.
“For the first time, water scarcity has struck Mumbai. The scanty rainfall this year has forced the BMC to impose a 15-20 per cent water cut. Like in Gulf countries, we should also start looking at desalination so that sea water can be converted into drinking water,” Chavan said. He said that the BMC has been asked to work on this and through privatization set up such plants wherever possible.
