Milestone Group’s real estate consulting arm, Milestone Ecofirst Advisory Services, plans to set up a clean technology private equity (PE) fund to help real estate projects achieve self sufficiency in water and waste disposal management.

The company plans to raise around $100 million (close to Rs 500 crore) through a private equity fund by the middle of 2010, largely to invest in clean technologies for residential, hotel, educational and hospital projects.

Ganapathy PG, director of Milestone Ecofirst, told FC that J Leon Group of UK, which is also a joint venture partner in Milestone Ecofirst, would help raise the fund abroad. It will also will buy some stake in the fund. “A lot of foreign technology companies specialising in waste water treatment have shown interest and we plan to buy equity stake in some of them. We are in talks with some of them which may materialise anytime soon,” Ganapathy said.

The company expects water shortage to be one of the major concerns that India would face in coming years in big and small cities alike. Grey water harvesting along with water harvesting would be the new buzzword. Besides, the requirement for clean technology for treatment of water and sewage would be in huge demand by every builder of residential projects, hospitals and large hotel chains.

Projects with self-sufficiency in water are now being developed, where dependence on municipal water would be zero. “The Kotak school project in Nagpur that we have advised is in a water scarce zone. However, by using grey water recycling and other water harvesting techniques, we have made school totally self dependent on water for the next 25 years,” Ganapathy said.

Residential buildings, hotels, hospitals and industrials complexes would have to use technologies that can reduce water intake by recycling the flush, kitchen and other form of wastewater to be reused for purpose other than drinking. The company is also in talks with some hospitals across India to promote the concept of sustainable development through clean technologies largely at water, waste disposal and energy efficiency levels.