The requirement
In Maharashtra, UDCPR 2020 sets a room height of 2.75 m at the least. An air-conditioned room can drop to 2.4 m. The cap is 4.5 m. Room floor size is left to you, the owner. A house stair can be 0.75 m wide, up to G+2.
UDCPR 2020 is the state’s own rule book for building work. The Urban Development Department signed it off in December 2020. It covers most planning bodies in the state. It does not cover all of them. Greater Mumbai is out. So is any planning body that sits inside the Mumbai limits. So are MIDC land, NAINA, JNPT, the hill station councils, Lonavala, the Chikhaldara notified area, and notified eco-sensitive zones. Ask your local body which rules apply on your plot.
Room height: 2.75 m to 4.5 m. That is the flat-roof rule for a room you live in with normal air flow. Air-condition it and 2.4 m will do. You measure from the finished floor to the finished slab. Low-cost EWS and LIG housing gets a tighter cap.
| Room, flat roof | Least height | Most height |
|---|---|---|
| Room you live in, normal air flow | 2.75 m | 4.5 m |
| Room you live in, air-conditioned | 2.4 m | 4.5 m |
| EWS/LIG housing | 2.75 m | 4.2 m |
Got a pitched roof? Then the rule works on the mean height of the room. That mean must reach 2.75 m. At its lowest point the room must still be 2.0 m. The top end is a 4.5 m mean, with 3.2 m at the lowest point. EWS and LIG housing needs a 2.6 m mean, with the same 2.0 m low point. Its top end is a 4.2 m mean, with 3.2 m at the low point. Under any beam you need 2.4 m of clear head room.
Room size: your call. UDCPR sets no least floor area and no least width for a room you live in. Size and shape suit the owner. The kitchen works the same way. Only its height is fixed, at 2.75 m to the lowest point of the ceiling. The bit of slab that holds the floor trap from above is let off.
Windows: a tenth of the floor. Add up the openings in a room you live in, or in the kitchen. Doors do not count. The total must reach a tenth of the floor area of that room.
Bath and WC: the one fixed size. Of the rooms you live in, these are the only ones with a set least size. Height is 2.1 m, to the lowest point of the ceiling.
| Room | Least size |
|---|---|
| Bath, on its own | 1.00 m x 1.20 m |
| WC, on its own | 0.9 m x 0.9 m |
| Bath and WC as one | 1.50 sq m, width at least 1.00 m |
A garage is fixed too. A private garage at a house starts at 2.5 m by 5.0 m. It must not go past 3.0 m by 6.0 m. Its height runs from 2.4 m to 2.75 m.
Stair width: 0.75 m for a house. A stair in an individual or plotted house of up to G+2 needs 0.75 m of width. Blocks of flats need more. The figure climbs with the height of the block.
| Building | Least stair width |
|---|---|
| Individual house, up to G + 2 | 0.75 m |
| Flats up to 15 m tall | 1.00 m |
| Flats over 15 m, up to 24 m | 1.20 m |
| Flats over 24 m | 1.50 m |
| Inside a duplex flat | 0.75 m |
| Stair up to a mezzanine | 0.90 m |
Steps and rails. In a home the tread must be 25 cm at the least, with no nosing. The riser can be 19 cm at most. Keep it to 15 steps in one flight. Leave 2.2 m of head room under a landing. The hand rail sits at least 1.0 m up, measured from the middle of the tread. Rails and balusters must not eat into the width of the stair.
Where the national code fits
The UDCPR word list still points at the National Building Code of India 2016. BIS pulled that code on 30 April 2026. SP 7:2026 took its place, under a new name: the National Building Construction Standards 2026. So the state book now names a code that is gone.
A national text is only advice until a state takes it up. In UDCPR areas, UDCPR is the book you build to. We could not confirm any figure in SP 7:2026. BIS sells the text. Check it on the BIS site if you need those numbers.
One more thing to watch. Our figures come from the state’s joined-up UDCPR text, brought up to date to 30 January 2023. A later version may be out. We could not confirm one. The Directorate of Town Planning site was down for us. Ask your planning body for the live text before you set out.
Related
- The national picture sits in Indian room height and area rules.
- Building the stairs? See Indian stair rules.
- The Maharashtra hub lists the other state changes.
- Start at India’s building code hub for how state rules and the national code fit together.
Sources
- UDCPR 2020, Regulation 9.2.2 and Table No. 9A — habitable-room heights: normally ventilated flat roof 2.75 m min / 4.5 m max (row 1(a)); air-conditioned flat roof 2.4 m min / 4.5 m max (row 1(b)); EWS/LIG flat roof 2.75 m min / 4.2 m max (row 1(a1)); pitched roof 2.75 m average min with 2.0 m at the lowest point, 4.5 m average max with 3.2 m at the lowest point (row 2(a)); EWS/LIG pitched roof 2.6 m average min with 2.0 m at the lowest point, 4.2 m average max with 3.2 m at the lowest point (row 2(b)); 2.4 m clear headway under any beam (first proviso following the table). Room Height is defined in Chapter 1, definition 110, as the vertical distance from the finished floor surface to the finished slab surface, and as the average between the bottom of the eaves and the bottom of the ridge for pitched roofs. MMRDA consolidated text updated to 30 January 2023: UDCPR PDF. Note: this host currently serves an incomplete certificate chain, so some browsers will warn on the link.
- UDCPR 2020, Regulations 9.2.1, 9.3.1 and 9.3.2 — no minimum size or dimension prescribed for habitable rooms or kitchens, both being left to the requirement and convenience of the owner; kitchen height 2.75 m minimum to the lowest point of the ceiling, except at the portion accommodating the upper floor’s floor trap.
- UDCPR 2020, Regulations 9.4.1 and 9.4.2 — minimum independent bathroom 1.00 m x 1.20 m; minimum independent water closet 0.9 m x 0.9 m; combined bathroom and WC 1.50 sq.m with 1.00 m minimum width; minimum height 2.1 m measured to the lowest point of the ceiling (bottom of slab).
- UDCPR 2020, Regulations 9.9.1 and 9.9.2 — a garage in an individual residential building shall be not less than 2.5 m x 5.0 m and not more than 3.0 m x 6.0 m; garage height not less than 2.4 m and not more than 2.75 m. Habitable rooms and kitchens have no prescribed minimum size, so the bath, WC and garage are the dimensioned rooms in a house.
- UDCPR 2020, Regulation 9.20.1(i) — aggregate area of openings, excluding doors, not less than one tenth of the floor area for habitable rooms and kitchens.
- UDCPR 2020, Regulation 9.28.8 and Table No. 9G — staircase widths: 0.75 m for individual (plotted) housing up to G + 2 storeys (Sr. No. 1(a)); 1.00 m up to 15 m height, 1.20 m above 15 m up to 24 m, 1.50 m above 24 m (Sr. No. 1(b)–(d), the last inserted by Clarification Order CR 236/18 (Part 2), 23 December 2021); Note to the table — 0.75 m for a duplex tenement’s internal stair and 0.90 m for a stair to a mezzanine floor (inserted by Corrigendum/Addendum CR 121/21, 2 December 2021).
- UDCPR 2020, Regulation 9.29.3 — residential tread 25 cm minimum without nosing and riser 19 cm maximum, maximum 15 risers per flight (iv, v); handrail 100 cm minimum measured from the centre of the tread, with balusters or railing not reducing the staircase width (vi); 2.2 m minimum headroom in a passage under a landing (viii).
- UDCPR 2020, sanction notification and applicability page — sanctioned 2 December 2020 by the Maharashtra Urban Development Department under ss. 37(1AA)(c) and 20(4) of the MRTP Act 1966. Applies to all Planning Authorities and Regional Plan areas of Maharashtra except, per Regulation 1.1(i) and the cover page, Greater Mumbai (MCGM); other Planning Authorities, Special Planning Authorities and Development Authorities within the limits of the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai; MIDC; NAINA; JNPT; hill station municipal councils; Lonavala; the Chikhaldara notified area (Chikhaldara Hill Station M.C. and four villages, inserted vide Corrigendum/Addendum CR 121/21 dated 2 December 2021); and MoEF&CC-notified eco-sensitive or eco-fragile regions.
- UDCPR 2020, Chapter 1 (definitions), item (viii) — undefined words and expressions take the meaning given in, among other instruments, the “National Building Code of India, 2016”. No Maharashtra amendment substituting SP 7:2026 was found.
- Gazette of India Extraordinary, Part III Section 4, No. 299 of 30 April 2026 (BIS notification) — SP 7:2016 (NBC 2016) withdrawn and SP 7:2026, “National Building Construction Standards 2026”, established the same day: egazette.gov.in. SP 7:2026’s own numeric provisions could not be obtained for this page, as BIS sells the text; confirm them directly at bis.gov.in before relying on any national figure.
Read this first. UDCPR 2020 is the binding instrument for these dimensions in UDCPR areas, and the figures above come from the official consolidated text updated to 30 January 2023. A later consolidation may exist; we could not confirm one, because the Directorate of Town Planning host was unreachable when this page was checked. Confirm the current text with your Planning Authority before you rely on any figure here.
State variations
These states apply requirements that differ from the national provisions for this rule.
- Maharashtra Adopted IN MH UDCPR
Current code: NBC 2016 (via Maharashtra UDCPR 2020)
Maharashtra's UDCPR caps habitable-room height at 4.5 m (min 2.75 m), where NBC 2016 sets only a 2.75 m minimum with no maximum. UDCPR also sets a 0.75 m stair width for individual/plotted housing up to G+2 storeys, and fixes handrail height at 1.0 m — a figure NBC leaves unset for an ordinary dwelling stair.
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