Greening Hyderabad’s Built Environment Through Low-Carbon Construction Materials: Problems, Solutions and an Implementation Framework for Public Projects, Corridors and High-Rise Housing

Abstract

Hyderabad is expanding rapidly through large public programmes and high-rise development, yet most green-city initiatives address land, water and energy and give limited attention to the construction materials that determine a structure’s embodied carbon, durability and waste footprint. This paper examines how conventional concrete-and-brick construction can be made substantially greener without abandoning it. Through a desk-based review of Indian standards, published literature, State policy announcements and project data, nine material-related problems affecting Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) works, the Outer Ring Road (ORR) corridor, HITEC City and tall residential buildings are identified, and a specific solution is proposed for each. The solutions cover cement and concrete mix strategies, recycled aggregates from construction and demolition (C&D) waste, lightweight walling, cool and permeable surfaces, durability measures, road-corridor materials, procurement and Schedule of Rates reform, incentives and verification, and supply-chain and skills support. An illustrative calculation shows that, under stated assumptions, replacing 30% of the cement in a concrete mix with fly ash lowers its cement-related emissions by about 29%, and replacing 50% with ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) lowers them by about 46%. The paper proposes a model specification, pilot projects with defined performance indicators, and a 36-month roadmap.