From correspondents in West Bengal, India, 05:09 PM IST

The city is poised to get what probably is its first green housing complex, to be developed by real estate major Siddha Group, with guidance from a state government agency.

The project, Xanadu, will have 'energy efficient equipment', as suggested by the West Bengal Green Energy Development Corp, a government enterprise set up to promote environment-friendly projects.

'The project will be unique in a sense that we will install green energy equipment in the building following the guidelines of the Green Energy Corp,' Siddha Group joint managing director Sanjay Jain said.

He said WBGEDCL will provide all technical assistance.

'With the completion of Xanadu, the housing sector could see a major shift towards energy conserving clean technology,' Jain said. 'It will be energy efficient, nature-friendly and using energy-saving passive and active solar devices.'

Xanadu will have 314 studio apartments, each with around 600 sq-ft space. It'll be located at Rajarhat, the showpiece township of the West Bengal government to attract investment as an extension to the IT hub in adjoining Salt Lake.

Initially, green energy that has low-carbon emission and is renewable would constitute 15 percent of the energy used in the apartment, he said. 'There will be facilities like rainwater harvesting, solar lighting and solar water heating system in the project.

'Finally our target would be to use 50 percent of renewable energy in the apartments, out of the total power consumption,' Jain added.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)