Kolkata Municipal Corporation Building Rules, 2009.

Applicable also for HMC

THE KOLKATA GAZETTE, EXTRAORDINARY, SEPTEMBER 9, 2009 [PART I]

NOTIFICATION

Chapter – I

PRELIMINARY

1. Short title, application and commencement
(1) These rules may be called The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Building Rules, 2009.
(2) They shall apply to all building activities in Kolkata other than activities referred to in section 450 of The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980.
(3) They shall come into force on the 15th day of September, 2009.

2. Definitions – In these rules unless the context otherwise requires —
(1) “the Act” means The Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act, 1980 (West Ben. Act LIX of 1980);
(2) “advertising sign” means any surface of a structure with characters, letters, illustrations or illuminations applied thereto and displayed in any manner whatsoever to public view for purposes of advertising or to give information regarding or to attract the public to any place, person, public performance, article or merchandise whatsoever, and which surface or structure is attached to, forms part of or is connected with any land, building or is fixed to a wall, hoarding, frame, post, kiosk or structure or to the ground or to any post, fence or displayed in space or in screen;
(3) “air-conditioning” means the process of treating air so as to control simultaneously its temperature, humidity, cleanliness and distribution to meet the requirement of conditioned space;
(4) “alteration” has the same meaning as in sub-section (3) of section 390;
(5) “apartment” means part of a property having a direct exit to a street or a passage or to a common area leading to such street or passage which together with its undivided interest in the common areas and facilities forms an independent unit;
(6) “applicant” includes, the owner for the time being, his agents and the successors in interest of the applicant;
(7) “architect” means a person who is registered as an Architect by the Council of Architecture under the
Architects Act, 1972;
(8) “balcony” means a horizontal projection with a handrail or balustrade or a parapet, to serve as passage or sitting out place;
(9) “basement or cellar” means the lower storey or stories of a building partly or wholly below ground level;
(10) “building plan” means a plan accompanying a notice for sanction or provisional sanction for erection, reerection, addition to or alteration of a building;
(11) “building services” in relation to a building means lighting and ventilation, electrical and allied installations, air-conditioning, heating and mechanical ventilation, acoustics, sound insulation and noise control, installation of lifts and escalators, water supply, drainage and sanitation, gas supply, landscaping, signs and outdoor display structures, fire fighting and safety arrangements, solid waste management, electronic and telecommunication installations;
(12) “chajja or cornice” means a horizontal structure, overhanging, usually provided over external walls to provide protection from sun and rain;
(13) “chimney” means the construction by means of which a flue is formed for the purpose of carrying the products of combustion to the open air and includes chimney stack or stay and flue pipe;

(14) “commencement of work” in relation to a building means the actual commencement of erection of a building including foundation work or re-erection or alteration, but mere excavation of earth or demolition of existing building shall not constitute commencement of work;
(15) “Corporation” means The Kolkata Municipal Corporation, established under the Act;
(16) “covered area” means the horizontal area covered by a building at any floor level but does not include the spaces exempted under these rules;
(17) “ground coverage” means the maximum area of the building footprint at the ground level, considering all horizontal projections in all floors, excluding the cornies, chajjas and architectural features projecting upto 0.6 m. from the outer building line;
(18) “carpet area” means the covered area of a building at any floor level, excluding the area of walls and structural members;
(19) “dangerous” in relation to a building means a building which by reason of its age, inadequate maintenance, dilapidation, abandonment or by any other reason, has become structurally unsafe or is not provided with adequate means of egress or which constitutes a fire hazard or which has otherwise become dangerous to human life;
(20) “depth” in relation to a plot means the distance from the front to the rear line of the plot:
(21) “Development Plan” means the Land Use and Development Control Plan (LUDCP) for the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Area as approved by the Government of West Bengal under section 37(2) of the West Bengal Town and Country (Planning and Development) Act, 1979;
(23) “drainage” means the removal of any liquid by a system constructed for the purpose;
(24) “escalator” means a mechanical device to transport persons between two or more levels in an inclined direction by means of guided moving steps;
(25) “floor” means the lower surface in a storey after finishing on which one normally walks in a building, unless otherwise specifically mentioned;
(26) “floor area” means the covered area of a building at any floor level;
(27) “Floor Area Ratio” or the letters “F.A.R” (being the abbreviation of the whole words “Floor Area Ratio”) mean the-quotient obtained by dividing the total floor area on all floors of a building by the area of the plot including the area of the water bodies, if any within the plot but not including the areas stipulated in (Rule 70(3)] as follows:
(28) “footing” means a foundation unit constructed in brick work masonry or concrete under the base of a wall or column for the purpose of distributing the load over an area required as per structural design;
(29) “garage” means a building or portion thereof designed and used for parking of motor driven or other vehicles;
(30) “Geo Technical Engineer” means a person with at least a Bachelors Degree in civil or construction engineering from a recognized university, institute or an equivalent engineering qualification recognized by the Government, having not less than five years‟ experience in planning and control of soil investigation work and formulation of basis for design and construction of different types of foundation and who has been empanelled by the Corporation as a Geo Technical Engineer under these rules;
(31) “Government” means the Government of West Bengal;
(31A) ‘Green Building’ means a structure created by using processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building’s life-cycle i.e. from design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. The same should be certified by the designated authorities or agencies notified by Municipal Affairs Department, Government of West Bengal;
(32) “height of building” means, subject to the provisions of rule 77, the vertical distance measured from average level of the centerline of the street or passage, to which the plot, abuts, to the highest point of the building whether with flat roof or sloped roof;

(33) “ledge or tand” means a shelf-like projection, supported in any manner except by means of vertical supports within a room itself but not having projection wider than 0.75 m., to be used only as storage space;
(34) “Licensed Building Surveyor” means a qualified surveyor who has been licensed under the Act;
(35) “lift” means an appliance designed to transport persons or materials between two or more levels in a vertical or substantially vertical direction by means of guided car platform;
(36) “loft” means an intermediary floor between two floors or a residual space in a pitched roof, above normal floor level which is constructed or adopted for storage purposes;
(37) “masonry” means an assemblage of masonry units properly bonded together with mortar;
(37A) ‘Mass Housing Project’ means the housing development project which should be certified by Housing Department, Government of West Bengal, as mass housing project;
(38) “means of access” means a public street or private street or passage, open to the sky provided that in the case of partition of an existing building, the passage need not be open to the sky;
(38A) ‘Mega Commercial Project’ means a project of floor area of twenty thousand square meters or above under use group Assembly building and / or Business building and / or Mercantile building;
(39) “mezzanine floor” means an intermediate floor between the ground floor and the first floor or between any two floors;
(40) “occupancy” or “use group” as stated in section 390 (2) of the Act means the purpose for which a building or a part of building is used or intended to be used;
(40) [1] “principal occupancy” is the purpose for which more than 50% of the total floor area of a building is used or intended to be used;

Explanation:

The classification of buildings on the basis of occupancy shall include –

(a) “Residential building” means, any building in which sleeping accommodation is provided for normal residential purpose as the principal use with cooking facility or dining facility or both; such building shall include one or two or multi-family dwellings, hostels, apartment houses and flats; in case of hostels or dormitories attached to educational institutions there may or may not be any cooking facilities;
(b) “Educational building” means, any building used for school, college, or day-care purposes involving assembly for instruction, education or recreation incidental to educational buildings;
(c) “Institutional building” means, any building or part thereof ordinarily providing sleeping accommodation for occupants and used for the purposes of medical or other treatment or care of persons suffering from physical or mental illness, disease or infirmity, care of infants, convalescents or aged persons and for penal or correctional detention in which thBusiness building” e liberty of the inmates is restricted; such buildings shall include hospitals, clinics, dispensaries, sanatoria, custodial institutions and penal institutions tike jails, prisons, mental hospitals and reformatories;
(d) “Assembly building” means, any building or part thereof where group of people congregate or gather for amusement or recreation or for social, religious, patriotic, civil, travel, sports, and similar other purposes; such buildings shall include theatres, motion picture houses, drive-in-theatres, city halls, town halls, auditoria, exhibition halls, museums, skating rinks, gymnasium, restaurant, seating houses, hotels, boarding houses, lodging or rooming houses, guest-houses, dormitories, places of worship, dance halls, club rooms, gymkhanas, passenger stations and terminals of air, surface and other public transportation services, recreation piers, multiplex and stadia;
(e) “Business building” means any building or part thereof used for transaction of business for keeping of accounts and records or for similar purposes; such buildings shall include offices, banks, professional establishments and court houses and libraries for the principal function of transaction of public business and keeping of books and records, and shall also include office buildings (premises) solely or principally used as an office or for office purposes.

Explanation:

(i) the expression “office purpose” shall include the purpose of administration and clerical work (including telephone and telegraph and computer operating), and
(ii) the expression “clerical work” shall include writing, book-keeping, sorting papers, typing, filing, duplicating, punching cards or tapes, machine calculating, drawing of matter for publication, and editorial preparation of matter for publications;
(f) “Mercantile building” means, any building or part thereof used as shops,-stores or markets for display or sale of merchandise, either wholesale or retail, or for office, storage and located in the same building; such building shall include establishments wholly or partly engaged in wholesale trade, manufacturer‟s wholesale outlets (including related storage facilities), warehouses and establishments engaged in truck transport (including truck transport booking agency);
(g) “Industrial building” means, any building or structure or part thereof in which products or materials of all kinds and properties are fabricated, assembled or processed as in assembly plants; such buildings shall include laboratories, power plants, smoke houses, refineries, gas plants, mills, dames, factories, workshops, automobile repair garages, and printing presses;
(gg) ‘Information Technology Building’ means a building used principally for transaction of information technology enabled services. The same should be certified by Department of Information Technology and Electronics, Government of West Bengal;
(h) “Storage building” means, any building or part thereof used primarily for the storage or sheltering of goods, wares or merchandise as in warehouses; such building shall include cold storages, freight depots, transit sheds, store houses, public garages, hangars, truck terminals, grain elevators, barns and stables;
(i) “Hazardous building” means, any building or part thereof used for the storage, handling, manufacture or processing of highly combustible or explosive materials or products which are liable to burn with extreme rapidity or which may produce poisonous fumes or explosions during storage, handling, manufacture or processing or which involve highly corrosive, toxic or noxious alkalis, acids or other liquids or chemicals producing flames, fumes, explosions or mixtures of dust which result in the division of matter in to fine particles subject to spontaneous ignition.
(40) [2] “mixed occupancy” shall mean those buildings in which more than two compatible occupancies are intended to be .present in different proportions and none of the occupancies are intended to be exceed 50% of total floor area and which shall have mixed use rules in the matter of means of access, occupancy distribution, permissible use of open space, FAR, car parking and height of building for the purposes of these rules;
(41) “open space” means an area forming an integral part of the site, open to the sky;
(42) “parapet” means a low wall or railing built along the edge of a roof or a floor;
(43) “parking space” means an area either enclosed or unenclosed, covered or open sufficient in size to park vehicle(s), located at any level having sufficient maneuvering space for loading and unloading;
(44) “partition wall” means an interior non load bearing wall, one storey or part -storey in height;
(45) “plinth” means the portion of the structure between the surface of the surrounding ground and surface of the floor, immediately above the ground, minimum height of which is 600 mm.;
(46) “row housing” means a row of houses with only front and rear open spaces and interior open space where applicable;
(47) “schedule” means the schedule to these rules;
(48) “section” means a section of the Act;
(49) “single building” means a building having single block or multiple blocks connected at any level including basement level where mandatory open spaces are considered in respect of the tallest block;

(50) “smoke-stop door” means a door for preventing or checking the spread of smoke from one area to another;
(51) “stair cover” means a structure with a covering roof over a staircase and its landing built to enclose only the stair for the purpose of providing protection from weather and not used for human habitation;
(52) “storey” means the portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between any flooar and the roof next above it;
(53) “Structural Engineer or Reviewer” means a person with at least a Bachelor‟s Degree in civil or structural or construction engineering from a recognized University or an equivalent engineering qualification recognized by the Government, having at least five years‟ experience in the field of design and construction of structures of buildings of different types and who has been empanelled by the Corporation as a Structural Engineer under these rules;
(54) “tenement” means an independent dwelling unit with a kitchen or cooking space;
(55) “transport vehicle” means a public service vehicle‟, a goods carriage, an educational institution bus or a private service vehicle as defined in the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 (59 of 1988) or in any modification or re-enactment thereof for the time being in force;
(56) “travellator” is a mechanical device meant to transport persons or materials horizontally by means of a guided belt;
(57) “toilet” means a room which is used both for bathing and as a water closet;
(58) “water closet” or the letters “W.C.” (being the abbreviation of the whole words “water closet”) means a privy with arrangement for flushing the part or commode with water but does not include a bathroom;
(59) “width of a public street” means the whole extent of space, including the footpath within the boundaries of the street as specified in the survey map or any other records of the Corporation;
(60) Other words and expressions have the meanings respectively assigned to them in the Act

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