Peshawar (Staff Report): An inaugural consultative workshop for the project, ” The Transformation of the Construction Sector in Pakistan: A Pathway towards Clean, Green and Sustainable Buildings”, organized by CISNR UET Peshawar held at Ramada Hotel Islamabad today.
The project is a joint venture of University of Engineering Technology Peshawar, National Energy Efficiency & Conservation Authority (NEECA), Islamabad, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic cooperation and Development through GIZ Pakistan.
The chief guest, Dr. Sardar Mohazzam, Managing Director, NEECA said, NEECA had introduced the national Energy conservation code in 2011 but due to lack of awareness among the stakeholders including government, industry and academia, the code was not implemented properly. “We are now at a stage where NEECA has got the financial support of BMZ through GIZ, partners including ABAD Builders, a major developer in construction sector in Pakistan that helped us in implementing it at the building design stage, he added. He further urged that future as well as the existing buildings in Pakistan need to have the “energy and building code” at the design stage and retrofitting mechanism, adding, NEECA has made it mandatory for the developers to get the energy conservation certificate for buildings.
Prof. Dr. Iftikhar Hussain, Vice Chancellor UET Peshawar said, CISNR has completed more than 28 research projects at the cost of 2.8 billion rupees in last ten years focusing over 10 SDGs. Similarly, a “Building Energy Research Center” will also be set up at UET Peshawar under the project. Dr. Muhammad Irshad, Project Manager GIZ welcomed the delegates from NEECA, IBAD, PEDO, PDA, LDA, CDA, PHA, NUST, LUMS, representatives from industry, academia and government. Dr. Gul Muhammad Director CISNR said, it’s important to ensure that we have coordination from stakeholders to deal with the problem because the conventional practices will deplete the available energy sources by 2030.
Dr. Naveed Ahmad, Project Lead and expert in energy building said, the project will take consultation from the stakeholders in future to develop an institutional technical framework for designing and implementing the national energy conservation building code 2023 in line with international practices and capacity building of professionals in the field of energy building. Qazi Muhammad Naeem, CEO PEDO presented the concluding remarks of the workshop while Prof. Dr. Sahar Noor, Dean Faculty of Mechanical, Chemical and Industrial Engineering, UET Peshawar, Dr. Rashid Rehan, Director NIUIP UET Peshawar, other senior officials from UET Peshawar and NEECA were also present on the occasion.