Building Bye-Laws

The National Building Code of India (NBC), a comprehensive building Code, is a national instrument providing guidelines for regulating the building construction activities across the country. It serves as a Model Code for adoption by all agencies involved in building construction works be they Public Works Departments, other government construction departments, local bodies or private construction agencies.

The Code was first published in 1970 at the instance of Planning Commission and then first revised in 1983. Thereafter three major amendments were issued to the 1983 version, two in 1987 and the third in 1997. The second revision of the Code was in 2005, to which two amendments were issued in 2015.

A Project for comprehensive revision of the Code was taken up under the aegis of the National Building Code Sectional Committee, CED 46 of BIS and its 22 expert Panels; involving around 1 000 experts. As a culmination of the Project, the revised Code has been brought out in 2016 as National Building Code of India 2016 reflecting the state-of-the-art and contemporary applicable international practices.

The comprehensive NBC 2016 contains 12 Parts some of which are further divided into Sections totalling 33 chapters (seeAnnex 1).

The Code has been published in two volumes containing all the Parts and Sections.

The publication  is available from Sales Counter at BIS Headquarters as well as various Regional and Branch Offices of BIS.