ASSIGNMENT-V

HOUSING

SUBMITTED BY : PRIYA NAIR

SUBMITTED TO : AR. SHRISHTY DIGGAL
 Research Paper
Building Regulations

 Any area having an altitude of more than 600 m from the mean sea level or an average slope
of 30 may be classified as hilly in India, which includes the Himalayas, the Central Highlands,
the Deccan Plateau and the north eastern hill ranges.
 Depending upon the altitude and prevailing climatic conditions, hill regions have been
classified into three categories as Foot-hill regions (below 1200 m), Mid-Hill regions (1200–
3500 m) and High-hill regions (above 3500).
 Hill towns are susceptible to different types of natural hazards like landslides, earthquakes,
floods, cloudburst, fire etc.
 Hill towns have grown many times more than their design and carrying capacity and are
under a lot of pressure for providing residential, educational, health, work and recreational
facilities, which is further pronounced due to scarcity of buildable land, as well as high land
prices.
 Construction/development activity on high and unstable slopes, more than 35% and up to
60%, having a high percentage of ground coverage with no tree/greenery.
 When any hilly area is crossing its limits for usage of land use that arises problems like
congestion, overcrowding, pollution, traffic jams, inaccessibility, landslides, forest reduction
and slope failure, which resulted in environmental degradation and ecological disturbance.

 The various issues/ problems faced by hill towns due to high urbanisation and rapid
development are as follows:-
-Increase in migration & influx of tourists increase in
population increase demands of housing & infrastructural
facilities.
-High density development decreased ecological balance of
hilly areas. Also, degradation of natural topography, vegetation
and disturbance of natural drainage pattern.
-Rapid urbanisation brings problems of congestion, water scarcity, landslides,
pollution of lakes and streams, and destruction of scenic beauty and visual blight.
-High development on steep & shaded slopes affected crucial
requirements for hill settlements like traffic congestion, inadequate water
supply etc.
-Buildings constructed in hilly areas are not constructed without adhering to safety
provisions required in hilly areas.
 -Hill towns have become concrete jungles characterised by depleting
forest/greenery, un-checked construction, barren hills covered with buildings,
narrow and accident prone roads, and encroachments on roads and public areas.
-Heavy construction congested localities-limiting natural light &
ventilation affects human health & environmental
chaos.
-High land cost land in suburbs & outskirts used for developmental
purposes improper land development (due to poor policies
& weak background of farmers).
-Inappropriate planning and design solutions unsafe building stock;
insufficient infrastructure; narrow roads; no open spaces
deterioration in quality of living environment.
-No fire safety provisions for the buildings.

 Building regulations are a set of rules enforced in human settlements aimed to protect public
health, safety, general welfare, and environment. These are the means by which
government/development authority can control use of available land resources, buildings,
infrastructure facilities to ensure proper spatial organisation and environmental protection
in the city.

Building regulations for existing residential buildings in hill towns in INDIA :-

F.A.R.

1. F.A.R regulation varies from 2.0 to 1.25 in different hill towns.

2. In most, F.A.R changes according to plot area; plots having smaller areas have more
F.A.R than plots with large areas, which results in a large built-up area for buildings
on smaller plots and relatively lesser built-up area for buildings on larger plots.

GROUND COVERAGE

1. The value of ground coverage varies from 70% to 40% in existing in force building
regulations.
2. Except Srinagar, where ground coverage permissible for all types is 40% others have
same ground coverage.
3. Higher ground coverage of the site results in less percolation of rainwater into the
ground and more runoff, due to reduction of soft/open areas.

BUILDING HEIGHT & NO. OF STOREYS

1. Height of building regulation varies from 19.00 to 11.0 m in different hill towns.
2. Shimla, Shillong, Srinagar, Manali etc. which have higher permissible heights for
buildings.
3. Permissible number of storeys also varies in different hill towns from 5 (including a
parking floor) to 2.
4. It is prescribed by consideration of access road width also, which results in a very
limited solar exposure to lower storey(s) and open spaces in between.
 SETBACKS

1. The setback areas provided in the current context are insufficient for buildings to
have adequate solar exposure.
2. Shillong, Nainital & Mussoorie considered the road width as a deciding factor for
limiting building height and front setback regulations

Issues related to existing building regulations in hill towns:-

1. Existing regulation are inappropriate in the contex of hill towns, as the geo-
environmental and socio-developmental context of Delhi varied to a greater extent
from that of hill towns.
2. There are very few building regulations in force to address these issues of hill town
like ecological sensitivity, proneness to hazards, and visibility etc.
3. No regulation for land use with any respect to topographical location, slope angle
and direction, hazard potential of the site, development pattern and potential.
4. There is a lack of clarity in building regulations.
5. In many hill towns various regulations related to many critical concerns which are
important to ensure appropriate development in environmentally sensitive hill
towns are not present in existing building regulations.
6. There are very less/no provisions which stop illegal and unplanned development in
hill towns.
7. There is a shortage of technical experts in hill towns who can implement existing
legislated building regulations in hill towns and ensure that construction activity will
be carried in accordance to regulation at different stages.