Ambedkar Action Alert: The West Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules, 2007

Friday, January 25, 2013

The West Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules, 2007

Building rules under a Municipal Act is framed to regulate building activities in the municipal areas after enactment of the West Bengal Municipalities Act, 1993 a building rule namely The West Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules 1999 was framed under the Act. But late it was felt necessary to give a new look to the building rules by way of taking clear measures for ensuring building safety, maintaining ecological balance and also to accommodate inflow of various type of industries in urban areas. Accordingly the West Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules, 2007 has been made.

Salient features of this rule are as follows:

Simplified definition of technical terms.
Provision to restrict length of any building, alongside a river or a water front, to a maximum of 20 meters, and to keep a minimum distance of 15 to 30 meters between such buildings in such areas.
Provision for submission of Structural Design or Soil Stability Report/ recommendations, if necessary, issued by L.B.S., Structural Engineer, Geo-technical Engineer.
Mandatory involvement of LBS, Structural Engineer, Geo-technical Engineer for supervision of every construction work and the duties of such engineers.
Determination of the fees for sanction of building plans. The minimum of such fee is Rs. 500/- for first 30 sq. meter, and thereafter for every 10 sq. meters or part thereof Rs. 75/-. Such fee shall not exceed 5 times of such base rates.
Powers of the Municipality to impose Stacking Fee for depositing any building material on any public place, and the minimum and maximum rate of such fee shall be 10% and 50% of the sanction fee of the concerned building respectively, per month.
Provision of submission of Structural Safety, Fire Safety, and Electrical Installation Certificates, issued by the Competent Authority, to the Municipality along with the application for Completion Certificate.
Provision for keeping safe distance from electric lines.
Provision for clear means of access, with a definite width, for all buildings.
Fixing maximum permissible ground coverage for residential and educational buildings from 65% to 50% on the basis of size of plot, and for other uses 40%. For plots measuring 5000 sq. meter or more additional ground coverage of 15% is allowed for car parking, ramps, staircase, lift for upper level car parking, and 5% out of said 15% shall be used for building services such as Air Conditioning Plant Room, Generator Room, Fire Fighting Equipments, Electrical Equipments etc.
Maximum permissible height of building has been fixed to 8 meters to 36 meters on the basis of the width of means of access varying from 2.4 meters to 24 meters step by step, and for the land having a means of access of more than 24 meters the maximum permissible height of the building is fixed to 1.5 X (width of means of access + required width of front open space) . For calculating height of a building the height of stair cover with a height upto 2.5 meters, lift machine room, roof tank, chimney, parapet wall upto a height of 1.5 meters, ventilating or air-conditioning or any other service equipment, toilet at roof level, garden cover with permeable material, and communication equipments shall be excluded.
Front, rear and side open spaces have been fixed on the basis of height of buildings in the following range:

The permissible front open space, -
1. for residential buildings within a range from 1.2 meters to 12 meters,
2. for educational buildings within a range from 2 meters to 20% of the building or 6 meters whichever is more,
3. for institutional, assembly, business, mercantile and mixed use buildings within a range from 2 meters to 8 meters,
4. for industrial and storage buildings within a range from 5 meter to 6 meter or 20% of the height of building whichever is more.
The permissible side open space, -
1. for residential buildings within a range from 1.2 meters to 15% of the height of the building on side 1 and side 2,
2. for educational buildings within a range from 1.8 meters to 20% of the height of the building or 5.0 meter whichever is more on side 1, and from 4.0 meters to 20% of the height of the building or 5.0 meter whichever is more on side 2,
3. for institutional, assembly, business, mercantile and mixed use buildings within a range from 1.8 meters to 9.0 meter whichever is more on side 1, and from 4.0 meters to 9.0 meter whichever is more on side 2,
4. for industrial and storage buildings within a range from 4 meter to 6 meter or 20% of the height of building whichever is more on side 1 and side 2.
The permissible rear open space, -
1. for residential buildings within a range from 2.0 meters to 14 meters,
2. for educational buildings within a range from 3.5 meters to 20% of the building or 8 meters whichever is more,
3. for institutional, assembly, business, mercantile and mixed use buildings within a range from 4 meters to 10 meters,
4. for industrial and storage buildings within a range from 4.5 meters to 6 meter or 20% of the height of building whichever is more.
The following structures are allowed in the mandatory open space, subject to creation of no obstruction to any movement of vehicle or fire tender, -
1. cornice, chajja, weather sheds;
2. outdoor type transformer;
3. under ground water reservoir, septic tank and ramp upto 60 cm above the ground level;
4. features related to facade treatment such as flower boxes, arches etc.;
5. ducts for encasing pipelines, all structures related to enhance esthetic quality of house (not more than 50 cm in height);
6. sewer and its appurtenances;
The number of car parking space has been determined on the basis of floor area. The size off street car parking has been fixed to a minimum of 12.5 sq.m. for motor car and 37.5 sq. m. for truck and bus.
A separate provision has been made for buildings with a height of above 14.5 meters (Tall Buildings). For sanction of such buildings the applicant has to submit Structural Safety Certificate issued by the competent engineer. The Municipality shall issue building permit for such buildings only after obtaining approval of the concerned Superintending Engineer of the Municipal Engineering Directorate. For these buildings FAR has been fixed within a range from 2.25 to 3.00 on the basis of the means of access. The car parking, stair cover, lift machine room, roof tank, service equipment, service floor, and permeable garden cover shall not be taken into account while calculating the FAR.
In case addition/ alteration of old buildings, constructed prior to enforcement of any building rules without keeping the mandatory open space, such open space shall be provided by setting back the construction of any storey beyond 8 meters height.
Requirement for different parts of building has been clearly delineated.
Mandatory provision has been made for providing exit requirements, fire protection, and installation of service equipments as per the guidelines of the National Building Code, and the National Electrical Code. In case of all buildings having a height of more than 14.5 meters clearance of Director of Fire Services has been made mandatory.
A separate chapter has been made for Salt Lake Township within Bidhannagar Municipal area and Nagadiganta Industrial Township. The provisions of this chapter shall be construed to be in modification or supplementing the other provisions of these rules. The salient points of this chapter are as follows:
1. Fee for sanction of building plan has been fixed to Rs. 3.50 per sq. ft. in case of residential buildings, for other buildings Rs. 10 per sq. ft.
2. For sanction of part plan the rate of fee has been fixed to Rs. 300 per floor, for sanction of revised plan such fee is Rs. 2.00 per sq. ft, and for revalidation of plan the rate of fee is Rs. 2.00 per sq. ft.
3. Simplified provision for mandatory open space.
4. Maximum covered space has been fixed to 45% to 60% on the basis of the area of the plot, and for IT/ ITES and other industrial or commercial buildings the ground coverage has been fixed to 40%.
5. FAR for the buildings have been fixed to 1.25 to 3.20 stepo by step in respect of the plot sizes from 2 kottah to 10 kottah, for Institutional buildings such FAR has been fixed to 2.75, and in case of use of 80% of a building for IT/ ITES a maximum FAR of 5.9 has been allowed for such building.
A separate chapter, in modification/ supplementing the other provisions of the rule, has been made for municipalities in hill areas. Special emphasis has been given on proper protection of the buildings and ecology, and also of the hill areas in this chapter.
Provision has been made for providing extra FAR in case of reconstruction of old (more than 50 years) or dangerous buildings after demolition in order to provide space for all the occupants of such dangerous building.
For ensuring maintenance of buildings older than 20 years provision for submission of Structural Safety Certificate, issued by competent Engineer, has been made mandatory, and thereafter, in an interval of every 6 years submission of such Structural Safety Certificate shall be submitted to the Municipality by the owner / occupier of the building regularly.
In case of all new construction and reconstruction provision of Roof Top Rain Water Harvesting System has been made mandatory. For construction of building with 6000 sq. m or more floor area 15% area of the land has to be earmarked for tree cover.
Water Recycling System shall be incorporated in the building or group of buildings having a minimum discharge of 40,000 liters and above per day for flushing toilets/ gardening / car washing etc.
Provisions in the building plan has to be made for disabled friendly devices.
Mandatory provision for use of Solar Energy has to be made in case of buildings with a height above14.5 meters. If in the other building provision for solar energy is made an incentive to the tune of 10% of the building sanction fee shall be allowed.