This Committee, in turn, set up 18 specialist panels to prepare the various parts of the Code. For fulfilling this task a Guiding Committee for the preparation of the Code was setup by the Civil Engineering Division Council of the Indian Standards Institution in 1967. The then Indian Standards Institution (now Bureau of Indian Standards) was entrusted by the Planning Commission with the preparation of the National Building Code. These studies resulted in a recommendation 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. It also became clear that these codes and byelaws lacked uniformity and they were more often than not specification oriented and not performance oriented. They did not cater to the use of new building materials and the latest developments in building designs and construction techniques. One of the facets of building construction, namely, controlling and regulating buildings through municipal byelaws and departmental handbooks received the attention of the Panel and a study of these regulatory practices revealed that some of the prevailing methods of construction were outmoded some designs were overburdened with safety factors and there were other design criteria which, in the light of newer techniques and methodologies, could be rationalized and building byelaws and regulations of municipal bodies which largely regulate the building activity in the country wherever they exist, were outdated. 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. 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.

It is imperative that for such a large national investment, optimum returns are assured and wastage in construction is avoided. It is estimated that about half of the total outlay on buildings would be on housing.

Half of the total money spent on construction activities is spent on buildings for residential, industrial, commercial, administrative, education, medical, municipal and entertainment uses. Construction, both public and private, accounts for about fifty percent of the total outlay in any Five Year Plan. (iv)įOREWORD Construction prograrnmes are interwoven in a large measure in all sectors of development, be it housing, transport, industry, irrigation, power, agriculture, education or health.

National building codes pdf