Gurugram’s Vipul Greens: A condominium with a green sense

With around 8,000 trees in the 17.18-acre complex, Vipul Greens has an undertone of sustainability in all their endeavours.

Upon entering Vipul Greens, one is greeted by a cool breeze of champa (plumeria) trees planted on the backdrop of a fountain right at the entrance.

Vipul Greens at Sector 48, Sohna Road, in Gurugram. With around 8,000 trees in the 17.18-acre complex, Vipul Greens has an undertone of sustainability in all their endeavours. (Sanjeev Verma/HT PHOTO)

The smell of greenery, as suggested by the name, wafts through the breeze and one can sense the pleasant ambience of the building. With around 8,000 trees in the 17.18-acre complex, the society has an undertone of sustainability in all their endeavours.

Home to around 2,500 residents, the complex has three phases with five, seven and 11 towers in phases 1, 2 and 3, respectively. Ranging from 1,665 to 3,785 square feet (sqft), the 644 flats in 23 towers all face the central garden and swimming pool of their respective phase. Each building has 14 floors with just two apartments on each floor. All the flats in the condominium have four balconies each and each tower has two penthouses and three lifts.

The construction of phase 1 of the condominium ended in 2007 and flats were sold. The construction of the final phase ended in 2009. The overall floor surface area in the society is around 13 lakh sqft.

Vipul Greens is also a delight for ornithologists, given that more than 70 species of birds have been spotted in the society. They include rare ones such as the red-vented bulbul, common dove, kingfisher, flycatcher, green parakeet, sparrow, prinia, green bee-eater, black drongo, Indian treepie, common myna, jungle blabbers, tailorbird and purple sunbirds, among others.

The creepers planted in the complex, along with flowering trees and plants, attract the rare birds to the complex. Birds need food, water, shelter and perches, all of which they find in the society.

The birds can be heard chirping early in the dawn, amid a variety of foliage with plants, shrubs, bushes, trees and climbers in the society, said residents.

“You can find mesmerising white plumeria at the entrance near the fountain area, across all three central greens and bougainvillaea flowers across the boundary. We also have plants like neem, holy basil and harsingar across the condominium,” said Sameer Kohli, the general secretary of the Vipul Greens residents’ welfare association (RWA).

The condominium also boasts of having the trifecta of a sewage treatment plant, composting unit and plastic bottle recycling unit. The treated water is used for horticulture and all the wet waste and horticulture waste is composted, which is made available to the residents and for horticulture in the condominium.

“Most of our dry waste goes to Ecogreen Energy, the concessionaire of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram for waste management. Also, we accept used plastic bottles for further recycling. Residents get Re1 transferred to their e-wallet for every bottle they feed into the machine,” said Sunil Pachar, a member of the RWA who is in charge of the sustainability efforts of the condominium.

The Eco Club of the condominium has also targeted to reduce 25% of the total water used through various initiatives.

Sunil Chopra, the president of the RWA, said, “We even have green walkways and 100% of our common areas have LEDs. We regularly take initiatives to spread awareness among our 2500+ residents on various sustainability initiatives.”

The residents also have an internal app — VG App by SmartCommunity — for paying bills, maintenance, help desk, payments, parking, grievance redressal and energy usage.

The community centre in Vipul Greens (for which the charges are Rs300-400 per month per flat) has a cafeteria run by one of the residents, a leisure room, a library, an ATM, indoor badminton court, a lawn for parties, a physiotherapy clinic, a table tennis room, a yoga room that is doubles up as a dance and Zumba room, a gymnasium, an ENT clinic and a pool/billiards room.

The complex has more than a 100 CCTV cameras for security purposes and visitors are required to directly call the residents who they wish to visit, without manual interference at the tower’s entrance. There is a biometric system for residents to enter.