Building Code Requirements in Maharashtra

Maharashtra builds to its Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR), 2020 — the state’s own consolidated planning and building-bye-law document, sanctioned by the Urban Development Department and incorporating NBC 2016. UDCPR sets several of its own numbers where NBC leaves a gap or a single national figure.

Room height gets a maximum, not just a minimum. NBC 2016 sets a 2.75 m minimum habitable-room height and no maximum at all. UDCPR’s Table 9A (§9.2.2) adds a cap: 2.75 m minimum, 4.5 m maximum for an ordinary habitable room, tightening to 2.75 m minimum, 4.2 m maximum for EWS/LIG (economically weaker section / low-income group) housing.

Stair width is relaxed further than NBC’s national exception. NBC’s 0.75 m stair-width figure only applies to a narrow case — row housing of two storeys. UDCPR’s Table 9G (§9.28.8) extends the same 0.75 m minimum to all individual or plotted housing up to G+2 storeys, a broader carve-out than the national default.

Handrail height is actually fixed here. NBC gives no handrail-height figure at all for an ordinary dwelling’s internal stair (see Indian stair rules). UDCPR fills that gap: minimum 1.0 m from the centre of the tread to the top of the handrail — §9.29.3(vi).

Get the basics right and check the current UDCPR text for anything not covered here — our stair calculator and concrete calculations guide handle the day-to-day maths either way.

Related

• India’s building code hub — how NBC 2016 and state bye-law adoption work together.
• Indian stair rules — the NBC 2016 national figures this page’s deltas sit against.
• Indian room height & area rules — the national 2.75 m minimum UDCPR’s cap builds on.

Read this first. UDCPR 2020 still names and incorporates NBC 2016 specifically, so it remains the practical, enforced reference for Maharashtra today — even though BIS has withdrawn NBC 2016 nationally and replaced it with SP 7:2026 (“National Building Construction Standards 2026”), gazette-notified in 2026 (reported 30 April 2026). That’s a change to the national standard only; it doesn’t take effect here until UDCPR itself is updated to reference it. Confirm which edition your current UDCPR/NBC reference actually adopts before you rely on any figure above.