Category: Interview

Pankaj Dharkar  President, PDA Consultants Pankaj Rajendra Dharkar, who was elevated form National President to International President of Fire & Security Association of India (FSAI) last year, has been passionately involved in providing innovative and energy efficient design solutions for building services for more than three decades. As the National President of FSAI, he took several remarkable initiatives which fructified well and became instrumental in the significant growth and expansion of the association. Fire and Security India Expo (FSIE) is one of those initiatives that he launched in 2017. Pankaj Dharkar established PDA (Pankaj Dharkar & Associates), a renowned MEP and Green Building Consulting Engineering Firm in 2006. In its constant dedicated pursuit for technical excellence, PDA has earned the reputation of providing quality engineering services in the field of designing and coordination of HVAC, IBMS, PHE, Fire Protection and Detection, Electrical, ELV, Lighting, IT, AV and Green Building Certification. PDA has the knowledge, experience and technical advancement to meet and exceed the anticipation of clients. It coordinates and executes wide range of projects of various applications such as hotels & resorts, offices, pharmaceuticals, hospitals, R&D labs, textile plants, commercial buildings & shopping malls & multiplexes, software and IT parks, high-rise apartments, banks, educational facilities, jewellery shops, manufacturing plants & garment factories, showrooms, exhibition centers, libraries, banquet halls, studios, cold storages etc. Fire and Security India Expo (FSIE) 2019 is close at hand; SecurityLink India recently spoke to him to understand his views on the current security and fire safety scenario in India, his plans and initiatives as the International President of FSAI and the journey of PDA. Some excerpts: SecurityLink India (SLI): What is the concept of green constructions and how far would it be able to reverse/ balance the environmental loss/ imbalance? Pankaj Dharkar: The green construction covers conservation of all aspects such as energy consumption, water consumption, lighting design, indoor air quality, choice of construction material, land fill, green areas, use of local material, architecture designed to provide optimum window wall ratio, orientation of buildings, use of renewable energies like solar and wind and geo thermal energy etc. Green building is an integrated approach of architect, MEP consultant, lighting consultant, landscape consultant and the structural consultant which yields the desired results. The world does not have option but to opt for green technologies if we want our future generations to have sustainable life. SLI: How far the laws and rules of the land provision for the propagation of green constructions and what more do you recommend? Pankaj Dharkar: There is a good and increased awareness in the government which can be felt by the way the Ministry of Environment & Forest (MoEF) has functioned in the last few years. Their insistence to adopt Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) and the latest National Building Code (NBC) has automatically helped the country move towards more sustainable projects. PWD/ NBCC have started going with green certifications. Currently India has four green certification possibilities – GRIHA, IGBC, USGBC, and ASSOCHAM GEM. Some of the states and corporations have started giving incentives for additional floor area ratio (FAR) etc. I do believe states and central governments should come up with innovative concessions to inspire all developers/ stakeholders to ensure that only green constructions happen in the future. Currently the penetration of green buildings is just 5%. It is said that 70% of India still to be built by the year 2030. It is therefore important that the government create massive awareness programs. ECBC got implemented when the government introduced star labelling programs and advertised it extensively. Today each house lady knows that a five star AC or refrigerator is more efficient and saves energy for the household and these informed house ladies help their husbands make smarter choices. Similar revolution happened in lighting when LED was promoted by the government. I firmly believe similar initiatives have to be taken by the government for green buildings as well so that end customers (occupants) start demanding for green homes and offices from the builders and developers. Surely this will propagate green building environment in the country. SLI: How have the safe and smart city projects been doing so far, and what is the percentile of them on the ground promoting green constructions concept? Pankaj Dharkar: Out of 100+ smart cities proposed by the Prime Minister many have started shaping up. Each smart city has different vision and mission based on various constraints and challenges the city is facing. Two major green field projects which are fast taking shape are Amravati and Gift City near Gandhinagar. I’m fortunately associated with many buildings taking shape in Gift City and taking care of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and fire-fighting (MEPF) and green building consultancy work at the Gift City. I am very glad to put on records that this project is implementing all possible green aspects and smart city visions which includes centralized district cooling, centralized garbage collection system, centralized sewage treatment plant (STP) and water treatment and several new concepts for fire control & a centralized command center. The list of initiatives at Gift City is endless. I strongly recommend people to visit Gift City and witness how the Prime Minister’s vision of smart city is getting implemented. SLI: Kindly share some of your completed and pipelined green projects Pankaj Dharkar: PDA has completed and been associated with 60 projects which include 14 Platinum rated buildings, 17 Gold rated buildings and 3 GEM certified buildings. The total area of green projects covered by PDA as of today is 1,80,00,000 sqft. SLI: Which are some of your most satisfying projects so far and why? Pankaj Dharkar: The best project for me will always be Facet Diamond (Surat), having close to 3000 workers engaged in diamond polishing/ processing work. This project was completed in year 2003, though we went for certification in the year 2014 and achieved a platinum certification. This was the first project in diamond industry globally to get platinum certification. Also since this was completed…