Enforcement of Building Construction Regulations in Urban Centers of India

Abstract

The urban centers in India are experiencing a rapid transformation, both controlled and uncontrolled, supported by the growing economy in the past two decades. However, this rapid urban growth has led to failure of urban authorities to regulate and implement safe building standards and practices, resulting in risk accumulation in the urban centers. Building regulation is an important tool to address the problems of uncontrolled development and increasing disaster risk. In spite of existence of various codes and guidelines (BIS codes, NDMA guidelines, and PWD/ CPWD manuals), nothing has proved accountable enough to scale down the magnitude of the vulnerabilities of building stocks. In India, state governments, local bodies (urban and rural), development authorities, special and new town development agencies, etc. are directed to modify, revise, and revamp the existing building regulations, planning, and safety standards in line with the National Building Code (NBC) 2015 with due consideration for the local variations. But implementation has remained a challenge due to weak institutional and financial capacities of the urban local bodies and non-emergence of specified agencies/expertise in the country. The strengthening and capacity building of various building development and regulating agencies with adequate level of expertise for proactive responses need to be supported by the building professionals and builder's lobby. This chapter highlights the importance of compliance of built structure with national guidelines/standards/ codes/manuals developed in the country. Further the chapter highlights various gaps based on four factors: (1) legal mechanism, (2) building code development, (3) implementation, and (4) training and awareness. In order to narrow the gaps, possible solutions like expert pooling among contiguously situated urban local bodies, rapid visual surveys, and financial incentives are discussed in the later part of the chapter.