Cement, Energy and Environment

- Quality & Standards NATIONAL BUILDING CODE OF INDIA 2005- BUILDING CODE FOR THE NATION Historical Construction programmes are interwoven in a large measure in all sectors of development, be it housing, transport, industry, irrigation, power, agriculture, education or health. Construction, both public and private, accounts for about fifty per cent of the total outlay in any five year Plan. Half of the total money spent on construction activities is spent on buildings for residential, industrial, commercial, administrative, education, medical, municipal and entertainment uses. It is estimated that about half of total outlay on buildings would be on housing. It is imperative that for such a large national investment, optimum returns are assured and wastage in construction is avoided. Soon after the Third Plan, the Planning Commission decided that the whole gamut of operations involved in construction, such as administrative, organizational, financial and technical aspects, be studied in depth. For this study, a Panel of Experts was appointed in 1965 by the Planning Commission and its recommendations are found in the Report on Economies in Construction Costs' published in 1968. These studies led to conclusion that one of the important steps towards achieving economy is through the formulation of a unified building code at the national level, which would rationalize and unify building codes and bye laws of various departments and local bodies respectively and which would reflect the latest trends in building construction activity. For this, it was recommended that a National Building Code be prepared to unify the building regulations throughout the country for use by government departments, municipal bodies and other construction agencies. The then Indian Standards Institution (now Bureau of Indian Standards) was entrusted by the Planning Commission with the preparation of the National Building Code. For fulfilling this task a Guiding Committee for the preparation of the Code was set up by the Civil Engineering Division Council of the Indian Standards Institution in 1967. This Committee, in turn , set up 18 specialist panels to prepare the various parts of the Code. The Guiding Committee and its panels were constituted with architects, planners, materials experts, structural, construction, electrical illumination, air- conditioning, acoustics and public health engineers and town planners. These experts were drawn from the Central and State Governments, local bodies, professional institutions and private agencies. The first version of the Code was published in 1970. After the National Building Code of India was published in 1970, a vigorous implementation drive was launched by the Indian Standards Institution to propagate the contents and use of the Code among Concerned in the field of planning, designing and construction activities. Since the publication in 1970 version of the National Building Code of India, a large number of comments and useful suggestions for modifications and additions to different parts and sections of the Code were received as a result of use of the Code by all concerned, and revision work of building byelaws of some States. Based on the comments and suggestions received the National Building Code of India, 1970 was revised in 1983. Some changes included: of the in 1983 important version addition of development control rules, requirements for greenbelts and landscaping including norms for plantation of shrubs and trees, special requirements for low income housing; fire safety regulations for high rise buildings; revision of structural design section based on new and revised codes, such as Concrete Codes, Earthquake Code, Masonry Code: addition of outside design conditions for important cities in the country, requirements relating to noise and vibration , air filter, automatic control, energy conservation for air-conditioning; and guidance on the design of water supply system for multi-storeyed buildings. Thereafter three major amendments were issued to the Code, two in 1987 and the third in 1997. Considering a series of further developments in the field of building construction including the lessons learnt in the aftermath of number of natural calamities like devasting earthquakes and super cyclones witnessed by the country, a Project for comprehensive revision of the Code was taken up under the aegis of National Building Code Sectional Committee, CEO 46 of BIS and its 18 expert Panels; involving as many as 400 experts. As a culmination of the Project, the revised Code has been brought out in 2005 as National Building Code of India 2005 reflecting the state-of-the-art and contemporary applicable 31