Reflect on this: Shiny towers turning NCR into ‘heat bubble’
On a May afternoon in Noida, the air does not just feel hot — it feels manufactured as glass towers lining the expressway catch the sun, throw it back doubled, and trap what remains inside their climate-controlled interiors, pushing the heat out onto the street below. Delhi-NCR has always had brutal summers, but something has shifted. The region is no longer just dotted with urban heat islands but is becoming one continuous heat bubble, and the gleaming commercial facades that define its skyline are quietly driving it. Although the Environmental Conservation Building Code provides a broad framework for the use of glass facades, not a single state has enforced these norms in building plan approvals. Haryana, Delhi and UP have no clear guidelines on glass facade use, even as dozens of commercial high-rises come up every year and add to the heat sink effect. Most of the new commercial buildings in the NCR over the past two decades have used glass and steel as primary construction components. Why builders love glass The economics are straightforward. A nine-inch brick wall replaced by a 6 mm glass panel frees up floor area — and in markets where commercial space fetches up to Rs 25,000 per square foot, every recovered inch translates directly into revenue. According to Rajneesh Sareen, director of sustainable habitat at the Centre for Science and Environment, on a 10,000-square-foot project, the switch can unlock nearly 1,000 additional square feet. Sareen also linked the preference for glass to the speed of construction. “Developers can complete a project much faster than they would have using traditional construction methods,” Sareen said. Glass also eliminates the biannual cycle of painting and plastering that traditional construction demands.