Indian Roads Congress

Special Publication 36

GUIDELINES ON FORMAT
FOR IRC STANDARDS

New Delhi 1991

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 Indian Roads Congress
Special Publication 36

GUIDELINES ON FORMAT
FOR IRC STANDARDS

Published by:
the Indian Roads Congress
Copies can be had by VP? from
The Secretary,
Indian Roads Congres~
Jamnagar House Shahjohan Road,
New DeThi4fflOJJ
.36
New Delhi 1991 Price Rs 12.00
(Plus packing &
postage)
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Published in January. 1991

(The Rights ofPublication and Translation are Resente4)

Edited and Published by Shn D.P. Gupta. Secretary, Indian Roads Congress.
New Delhi. Printed by MIs Sagar Printers & Publishers. New Delhi
(2.000 copies)
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 CONTENTS

Page
I. Preface
2. Title 2
3. Index/Table of Contents 2
4. Introduction 3
5. Scope 3
6. Notations 3
7. Terminology/Definitions 3
8. Specifications 4
9. Paragraphing and Numbering 4
10. Appendices 5
11. Tables 5
12. Illustrations 6
13. Units of Measure 8

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 GUIDELINES ON FORMAT FOR IRC
STANDARDS
1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. It has been felt that Standards and Specifications brought

out by the Indian Roads Congress should follow an uniform for-
mat and be consistent in contents. The following general guidance
shall be followed unless there are definite reasons to the contrary.
In preparing the draft, care shall be taken to ensure that the Stan-
dard is not at variance with the contents of other pub1i~hedIRC
Standards on linked subjects. In case, for good reasons, a depar-
ture from earlier practice becomes necessary, action shall be
initiated to examine and reconcile the difference and carry out
amendments to the earlier standards also.
1.2. Standards shall cover the necessary technical provisions
relating to the subject and avoid unnecessary details and
repetition.
1.3. The Guidelines on Format for IRC Standards was initially
prepared by IRC Secretariat and placed before the Highways
Specifications and Standards Committee and Bridge Specifi-
cations and Standards Committee in their meetings held on 7th
April, 1989 and 5th and 6th April, 1990 respectively. The Highways
Specifications and Standards Committee had suggested slight
modifications and the same were incorporated. The draft
guidelines were then placed before the Executive Committee in
their meeting held on 30th August, 1990 and approved subject to
certain modifications suggested by Shri N.y. Merani. The
Guidelines were finally approved by the Council in their meeting
held on 8th Decembei, 1990 at Calcutta.
1.4. The following suggested format may be adopted by all the
drafting Committees. The actual contents of the Standards i.e.
Codes/Specifications/Guidelines/Special Publications will be
decided by the Committee depending on the applicability of the
particular item listed in the suggested format

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 - —— •~ . . lltrI.a__J_..j.II. - s... .~ .

2. TITLE
The title shall be short, yet fully indicative of the scope of the
Standard. Care shall be exercised in the choice of a title even in the
early stages of drafting

3. INDEX/TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Standard having large number of items should be pro-
vided with a index/table of contents as per illustration given
below

CONTENTS
Clause/Chapter Page No.
Notations
Abbreviations
Tenninology
1.0 INTRODUCTION
2.0
2.1.
2.1.1.
2.1.2.
2.1.3.
2.2.
3.0.
3.1.
3.1.1.
LIST OF TABLES
Table-i
Table-2
Table-3
LIST 0? FIGURES
Fig-i
Fig-2
Fig-3

APPENDICES
Appendix-I
Appendix-2
Appendix-3....

BIBLIOGRAPHY (in case of Guidelines and Special Publications)

(Note — These will be included onjy where it is considered esiential).

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 4. INTRODUCTION

It should contain the following

(a) The origin of the request for the Standard
(b) Brief history relating to the preparation of the standard, composition
ofComrnittees, Sub Committees and Panel constituted with specific
work, The membership of the Committees shall be based on the date
of finalisation of the Standard. lRC Secretariat will normally look
after the work of listing the Committee Members.
(c) Any special features in the Standard,
(d) Other matters relevant to the Standard, such as source of information
on which the Standard is based, the relevant Standards which have
been referred to including !RC Standards and the other Standards on
the same or similar subjects published earlier.

5. SCOPE
A clear statement of the scope of the Standard shall be made
indicating the field covered by the Standard, The subject matter of
the Standard shall be kept strictlywithin the limits so outlined. To
avoid ambiguity in the interpretation of the scope, it is sometimes
useful to state explicitly what is excluded,

6. NOTATIONS

The Notations contained in the Standard should conform to

the IRC: 71-1977 ‘Recommended Practice for Preparation of
Notations’,

7. TERMINOWGY/DEFINTTIONS

Technical terms and abbreviations used in a Standard shall be

those defined in the relevant Indian Roads Congress/Indian Stan-
dards on terminology of the particular subject in question, ifsuch
exists, otherwise, they should follow the best trade practices in
India, keeping in mind international standards and accepted
usage abroad,
When definitions of terms and abbreviations are included in a
Standard they shall be prefaced by the words ‘For the purpose of
this standard, the following definitions and/or abbreviations shall
apply’.
Terms and definitions shall be listed in the alphabetical
order,
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 Definitions shall be unambiguous, precise and given in des-

criptive form,

8. SPECIFICATIONS

Specification clauses shall be as self-contained as possible. The

language to he used should be such as to distinguish whether a
particular provision is’obiigato~”,‘optional’ or’recommendatory’
and ‘informative’ e.g. ‘preferable’, ‘as far as possible’, ‘shall be’,
‘may be’ etc. The sequence of their appearance in a standard and
their grouping shall be decided according to actual require-
ments.

9. PARAGRAPHING AND NUMBERING

For convenience in reference, the text of a Standard shall be

numbered in the international form of Indian numerals and
subdivided
For the purpose of numbering the Standard shall have the
following divisions:
(I) Item: A major subdivision of the subject matter of the Stan-
dard. items of a Standard shall be numbered in numerals in con-
seculive order.
(ii) Clause: A subdivision of the item. Clauses shall be num-
bered in numerals and shall contain two numbers separated by a
full slop, the first number being the number of the item and the
second being that of the clause numbered in consecutive
order.
(iii) Sub-Clause: An aspect of the subject matter of a clause
requiring separate treatment Sub-clause shall be numbered in
numerals and shall contain three numbers separated by full stops,
the first two numbers being those of item and clause respectively,
and the last one being that ofthe sub-clause numbered in consecu-
tive order.
(iv) Sub-subelause: A subdivision under a sub-clause. Sub-
suhcla use shall be numbered in numerals and shall contain four
numbers separated by full stops the first three numbers being
those ol’the item, clause and sub-clause respectively and last one
being that of the sub-subclause numbered in consecutive
order.
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 In numbering items, clauses, sub-clauses and sub-subclauses,
care shall be taken that ideas having same status are numbered at
the same level and that a given idea is not split up into too many
unnecessary subdivisions,

10. APPENDICES

Any mattel, such as description of a lengthy test method, dis-

cussion of any of the requirements of the Standard or its basis not
included in clauses and any other matter, which is not suitable for
the text of the Standard but is of general interest or assistance in
the use of the Standard shall be given as an Appendix
Immediately under the Appendir designation, reference to the
relevant clause or clauses of the standard shall be given in brac-
lets, followed by the title of the Appendix

11. TABLES

Tables shall be used wherever tabular presentation would

eliminate repetition or show relationships clearly. Tables may be
of the formal or informal type. The formal type should be used
where large amount of data is presented and which is likely to be
examined as a separate unit or referred to elsewhere in the text
The informal type should be used where a small amount of
material is presented as an integral part of the text
Captions in capitals shall be placed at the top of all formal
Tables which shall be numbered in numerals in one consecutive
series in a given Standard, including Tables in Appendica
Grouping of Tables as Table 1-A, Table I-B should be avoided
unless they are very closely related and cannot conveniently he
consolidated in one Table or made two separate Tables.
All formal Tables should be separated from the rest of the text
with thick line across the page one at the top and the other similarly
at the bottom of the Table. It is desirable to give Clause numbers
below the heading of Tables and Figures in brackets.
As a general rule, the Table may be placed as near the first
reference to it as possible without breaking it into the middle of the
paragraph.
In general, footnote to the Tables should be avoided. Where it
is necessary to use footnote to formal Tables they shall be in
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 smaller type placed immediately above the bottom thick line and
shall he intended, To indicate reference to footnote asterisks,
dag,gers, another small symbol should be used,but, where there is a
large number of footnotes to a Table, superscript numerals in one
consecutive series may be used.

12. ILLUSTRATIONS
Diagrams, maps, graphs, photographs and drawings in
perspective in isometric or in third angle projection shall be used
wherever it is thus possibid to illustrate an idea m~~~~!!ore
clearly.
Illustrations fall into two classes, viz.
(a) i.,ine drawings.
(b) Half’tones
Line drawings: should be made in black Indian ink on
superior white drawing paper or tracing cloth. Blue-prints are of
no use for reproduction and black line prints are also unsatis-
factory.
line drawings are generally classified into two categories:
(a) Diagrams which go into the body of the Standard; and
(h) Plates which are generally on separate large size sheet~
Diagranu~’The matter for the standard is printed in 10 pt size
type (nearly i.Smm in height); therefore the written inatter in
diagrams should be so made that the size of the letter when
reduced for reproduction should be about 1.5mm. The printed
area of a page measures 170 mm deep and 108 mm wide.
Therefore, the ultimate size of such drawings will not generally be
more than 127 mm x 100 mm. Thus, ifa diagram is to be reduced to
one quarter of the size submitted by the Committee the letteri ng on
it should not he less than 6 mm in height
Plates: Plates should preferably be prepared in widths that are
multiples of 190 mm. The size ofletters used in the Plate should be
so chosen that after reduction no letter would be less than 1.5 mm
size. Thus if the width is 380 mm., the minimum size of the letter
should be 3 mm. The thickness of the letter should also stand cor-
responding reduction. The title should be in the right hand bottom
corner in letters of such size that when reduced, the size will be at
least 3 mm.
Scale should be drawn in the Plate below the title to admit of
reduction of drawings without altering the correct relation of the

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scaleof the drawing. Mere mention ofthe scalethus ‘Scale of 1/100
(1 cm = lm)’ should be avoided as this would be incorrect when
size of the plate is reduced photographically.
Coloured inks should not be used. When it is desired to dis-
tinguish lines, dotted or chain dotted lines should be used instead
of colours.

From the standpoint of pleasing appearance, a rectangular

graph or drawing with proportions between 3 by 5 and 3 by 4 is to
be preferred to a square one.
The appearance and effectiveness of a graph depend in a large
measure on the relative thickness of lines used in its component
parts. The thickest line should be used for the principal curve. if
several curves are presented on the same giaph, the line width
used for curves should be less than that used when a single curve is
presented. Co-ordinate rulings should be the narrowest in thick-
ness. Principal reference lines such as the axes should he wider
than other rulings hut narrower than curves. For the size of reduc-
tion that is usually adopted for the Standard it is considered that
the thickest line when finally reduced should not be more than
2½points, i,e. 1 mm width.

“Half-tones” are ordinary photographs and it is necessary to

see that prints are clear, slightly over-printed and preferably
glazed. Only black and white photos be submitted as coloured
pholos generally do not give good results in printing Also
photographs which are dim or out of focus do not come out dis-
tinctly in reproduction and make a bad “hall-tone”. Negatives
should accompany the photographs whenever possible. Captions
should be written on the back of prints in soft pencil.

All illustration in a given Standard shall he designated as

figure (figures) and consecutively numbered in numerals. Group-
ing of figures as 1-A, B shall be avoided to extent where a figure
illustrates a number of parts relating to the same object Captions
shall be placed at the bottom of figures. In the script, initial letter of
all the principal words shall be in capital.

in preparing the originals, captions shall he typed or neatly

printed in hand on the hack of the figures in full or in part but the
lull text of all the caplions shall be included in the manu-
script.
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 Each figure shall be placed as near the referenceto it in the text
as possible without needlessly breaking into the middle of a
paragraph. Necessity for turning over a page to refer to figure
shall be avoided

12. UNITS OF MEASURE

SI units shall be used in all the Standards,

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 MEMBERS OF THE HIGHWAYS SPECIFI-
CATIONS AND STANDARDS COMMITFEE
1. R,P. Sikka Addi. Director General (Roads). Ministry of
(Convenor) Surface Transport (Roads Wing)
2. P.LDut*a Chief Engineer (Roads), Ministry of Surface
(Member-Secretary) Transport (Roads Wing)
3. 8.5K, Bhagat Chief Engineer (Civil), New Delhi Municipal
Committee
4. P. Rams Chandran Chief Engineer (R&R), Govt of Kerala
S. Dr S Raghava Chari Head, Transportation Engirseerin~Regional
Engineering College, Warangal
6. A,N. Chaudhuri Chief,Engineer (Retd.), Assam Public Works
Department
7. Dr Mi. Dhir Director (Engg, Coordination). Council of
Scientific & Industrial Research, New Delhi
8. NB. I)esai Director, Gujarat Engineering Research Insti-
tote, Vadodara
9. Lt Gen, MS. Gosain Director General Border Roads
10, J.K. Dugad Chief Engineer (Mechanical), Ministry of Sur-
face Transport (Roads Wing).
11. Dr AiC Gupta Professor & Co-ordinator, University of
Roorkee
12. D.K, Gupta Chief Engineer (HQ) PWD Uttar Pradesh,
Lucknow
13. D.P. Gupta Chief Engineer (Planning). Ministry of Surface
Transport (Roads Wing)
14. S.S. Des Gupta Senior Bitumen Manager, Indian Oil Corpora-
tion LW,, Bombay
15. Dr LIt Kadiyali 259, Mandakini Enclave, New Delhi
lb. Dr IX, Kamboj Scientist-SD, Ministry of Environment &
Forest, New Delhi
17. MX, Khan Engineer-in-Chief (B&R), Andhra Pradesh
18. V.P. Kamdar Secretary to the Govt. of Gujarat, Roads &
Buildings Department
19. Ninan Koshi Addl. Director General (Bridges), Ministry of
Surface Transport (Roads Wing)
20. P.K Lauria Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Rajasthan
State Bridge Constn. Corpn. Ltd., Jaipur
21. S.P. Majumdar Director, R&B Research Institute, West
Bengal
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 22. Nv. Merani Principal Secretary. Govt of Maharashtra,
PWD, Bombay
23 ‘IlK. Natarajan Director (Retd.), CRRI
24 G.S. Palnitkar Engineer-in-Chief, M.P., P.W.D.
2.5. MM. Patnaik Engineer-in-Chief-cum-Secretaty to the Govt.
of Orissa
26. YR. Phuil Deputy Director & Head, CRRL, New Delhi
27. UP. Ralegaonkar Director & Chief Engineer. Maharashtra
Engineering Research Institute, Nasik
28. C; Raman Director ~Civil Engineering). Bureau of
Indian Standards
29. A. Sankaran Block No. 1/7/2. SI, Shangirla, G.O.C.H.
Colony. 22nd Cross, Besant Nagar, Madras
.30. Dr. AC Sarna General Manager (T&1) R1TES, New Delhi
31 R.K. Saxena Chief Engineer (Roads). Ministry of Surface
Transport, (Roads Wing)
32. N. Sen Chief Engineer (Retd.), 12-A. Chittranjan Park,
New i)elhi
33. MN. Singh General Manager (Technical), Indian Road
Construction Corporation Ltd., New Delhi
34. Prof C. C. Swaminathan ‘Badri’, 50. Thiruvankadam Street R.A.
Puram, Madras
35. MM. Swaroop Secretary to the Govt <sf Rajasthan. PWD.
Jaipur
36. The (:‘hief Engineer Concrete Association of India, Bombay
37. The Chief Project Rail India Technical & Economic Sen ces Ltd.
Manager (Roads) New Delhi
38 The Director Highways Research Stations, Madras
39 The Engineer-in-Chief Haryana, I. W.fl. B&R, Chandigarh
40. The President lndian Roads Congress W.P. Kamdar), Sec-
retary to the Govt.of Gujarat, — Er-<sfficio

41. The Director General (Road Development) & AddI. Secretary to the
Govt of India (K.K. Sarin) — Er-officio

42. The Secretary Indian Roads Congress

(D.P. Gupta) -. Er-officio

CorrespondIng Members
43 MB. Jayawant Synthetic Asphalts, 103, Pooja Mahul Road,
Chembur, Bombay
44. 0. Muthachen Tolicode P.O. Punalur-691333
45. A.’ll Patel Chairman & Managing Director,Appoilo Earth
Movers Pvt, Ltd., Ahmedabad

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 MEMBERS OF lIE BRIDGES SPECIFICATIONS
AND, STANDARDS COMMI1EE
I. Ninan Koshi AddI. Director General (Bridges), Ministry of
(Convenor) Surface Transport (Roads Wing)
2. MX. Mukherjee Chief Engineer (Bridges), Ministry of Surface
(Member-Secretary) Transport (Roads Wing)
3. SR Aggarwal Director, Research Design & Standards
Organisation, Lucknow
4. CR. Alimchandani Chairman & Managing Director, Stup (lndia)
Ltd., Bombay
5. Dr. A.S. Arya Head, Deptt ofEarthquake Engg.. University of
Roorkee, Rooiicee
6. LS. Bassi AddI. Director General (Bridges) (Retd.), Flat
No. 42, NGH Society, New Delhi
7. MX. Bhagwagar Consulting Engineer, Engg. Consultants Psi.
Ltd., New Delhi
8. P.C. Bhasin 324, Mandakini Enclave, Greater Kailash
New Delhi-l10019
9. AG. Borkar Chief Transport & Communications Division,
BMRDA, Bombay
10. S.P. Chakrabarti Chief Engineer (Bridges). Ministry of Surface
Transport (Roads Wing)
II. S.S. Chakraborty Managing Director, Consulting Engg, Sen’ices
(India), New Delhi
12. Dr. P. Ray Chaudhuri 148, Sidhartha Enclave, New Delhi
13. AN. Choudhury Chief Engineer (Retd.), 4, Assam Govt Press
Road, Guwahati (Assam)
14. N.N. C’hatterjee ChiefEngineer(Roads), P.W.D. (Roads), Direc-
torate, West Bengal
1.5. Bi. Dave Chief’ Engineer (RRP) and Joint Secretary,
Gu~aratR&B Deptt, Gandhinagar.
Ui Dharam Vir Engineer-in-Chief UP. P.W.D. Lucknow
17. l)harm Pal Engineer-in-ChieC H.P. P.W.D. Shimla
18. Achyut Ghosh Director, Metal Engg. Treatment Co. Pvt
Ltd., Calcutta
19. P.S. Gokhale Anant Patel Road, Bombay
2tt. D.T. C’,rover Chief Engineer (Retd), D-1037, New Friends
Colon~New Delhi
21. P. Kanakaratnam Chief F.,ngineer (H&RW), Tamil Nadu
22. V. Krishnamurthy Chief Engineer, P.W.E. NH, Karnataka
23. AK. La] Engineer-in-Chief-cum-Spl.’Secretary, P.W.D.,
Road Constn. Deptt.. Patna
24. CR Mathur ChiefEngineer&Addi. Secy.,Rajasthan P.W.D.
B&R Jaipur
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 25. NV, Merani Principal Secretary to the Govt ofMaharashtra
P.W.D., Bombay
26. Dr AX, Mullick Director, National Council forCement& Build-
ing Materials, New Delhi
27. P.V. Naik ChiefTechnicalConsultant, Gilcon Project Ser-
vices Ltd., Bombay
28. G. Raman Director (Civil Engineering), Bureau of
Indian Standards
2~. Dr. TN. Subba Rao Managing Director, Gammon India Ltd.,
Bombay
30. Dr. G.P.Saha Chief Engineer, Hindustan Constn. Co. Ltd.,
Bombay
31. MV. Sastiy Chief Engineer (Bridges), Ministry of Surface
Transport (Roads Wing)
32. S. Seetharaman Chief Engineer (Bridges) (Retd.), H-Block, Flat
No. 33A, DDA Self Financing Scheme, Saket,
New Delhi-I 10017
33. R.P. Sikka AddI. Director General (Roads), Ministry of
Surface Transport (Roads Wing)
34. J.S. Sodhi Chief Engineer (Retd.), 546/Sector- 16,
Chandigarh
35. KB. Sarkar Chief Engineer (Bridges), Ministry of Surface
Transport (Roads Wing)
36. B.V. Subramanyam Chief Engineer (Design) C.P.W.D., Central
Design Organisation
37. NC. Saxena Managing Director, UI. State Bridge Constit
Corporation Ltd., Lucknow
38. l)r. MG. Tamhankar Deputy Director, Structural Engg Research
Centre, Ghaziabad (UP)
39. Mahesh Tandon Managing Director, Tandon Consultants Ni.
Ltd., New Delhi
44:). The Director Highways Research Station, Guindy, Madras-
600025.
41. The President Indian Roads Congress (V.P. Kamdar~,Sec-
retary to the Govt. ofGujarat,P.W. D. -‘Er’o,ffició
42. The Director General (Road Development) & AddL Secretary to the
Govt of India (LX Sam) - Ex-officio

43. The Secretary Indian Roads Congress

(D,P. Gupta), - Err-officio

Corresponding Members
44. Dr. K. Rajagopalan Indian Institute of Technology, P.O. liT,
Madras-600 036
45. I)r. V.K, Raina United Nations Expert in Civil Engg (B&S), C/o
U.N.D.P. PB. No. 558, Riyadh-11421 (Saudi
Arabia)
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