Indian Stair Rules: Riser, Going, Width & Headroom (NBC 2016)

The requirement

Edition and scope. This page summarizes the stated older NBC 2016 reference. BIS now lists SP 7:2026. A model text is not a nationwide permit rule: confirm the local bye-law and adopted edition first. The newer standard’s clauses have not been checked here.

For a house stair in India, the max rise is 190 mm and the min going is 250 mm. Headroom is 2.2 m and clear width is 1.00 m. No more than 12 risers in one flight. The rules sit in the National Building Code 2016, Part 3 §12.18.

Part 4 restates the same numbers in its fire and life safety chapter. This page uses the figures for a one or two family home. NBC files that under occupancy A-2.

• Rise. Each step can be at most 190 mm high (§12.18.1.3). Other building types are stricter at 150 mm.
• Flights. No more than 12 risers in a single flight (§12.18.1.3).
• Going. Each tread must be at least 250 mm deep, not counting the nosing (§12.18.1.2). Other building types need 300 mm.

Keep every rise the same and every going the same. The stair then climbs evenly.

Two more figures round it out:

• Headroom. At least 2.2 m clear over the stair, and in any passage that runs under a landing (§12.18.2).
• Width. At least 1.00 m clear for a house stair (§12.18.1.1(a)). Row housing of two storeys gets a narrower exception: 0.75 m.

Guards, barriers and the handrail gap

Guarding at a balcony, roof-terrace or verandah edge has a real NBC figure. The parapet or handrail there must sit between 1.0 m and 1.2 m above the finished floor level (Part 3 §12.11, “Parapet”). NBC gives no separate guard height for the stair flight itself beyond that parapet clause.

Handrail height for a normal house stair is simply not set. Worth being blunt here. Two handrail figures get passed around for NBC. Neither one applies to a normal inside stair.

• 1000–1200 mm is for external fire-escape stairs on larger buildings (Part 4 §4.4.2.4.3.4(h)).
• 850–950 mm comes from Annex B, NBC’s access rules. Annex B’s own scope line says it “does not apply to private residences” (§13.1.2).

NBC does require a handrail on a house stair. It just sets no height for it. Want a firm number instead of a gap? Maharashtra’s UDCPR fills it locally at a minimum of 1.0 m from the centre of the tread. See the Maharashtra page.

Work it out on site

Say your floor-to-floor height is 2800 mm and you are setting out a house stair.

1. Pick the riser count. 2800 ÷ 190, the tallest rise allowed, gives 14.7. Round up to 15 risers. But the cap is 12 risers per flight, and 15 is over it. So split the stair into two flights with a landing between. Flights of 8 and 7 risers keep each flight under the cap. Reducing the riser height increases the number of risers; it does not solve the flight-count limit.
2. Set the going and landing separately. Try 250 mm for each going. Each flight ends at a landing or upper floor. If that forms its final tread, 8 and 7 risers give 7 + 6 = 13 goings. Their flight runs are 1750 mm and 1500 mm. Add the landing dimensions separately and check the complete layout against your stairwell.
3. Check width and headroom. Hold the layout against the 1.00 m and 2.2 m minimums.

Use the calculator for geometry. Check the number of risers in each flight and all applicable code limits separately; the web tool does not check them.

Do it in 5 seconds

Related

• The India building code hub explains how the NBC model code and state bye-law adoption works.
• The Maharashtra page covers where UDCPR sets its own stair width and handrail figures.
• The Delhi page covers where Delhi’s UBBL grades stair width by dwelling-unit size.

Sources

• National Building Code of India 2016 (NBC 2016 / SP 7:2016), Bureau of Indian Standards — Part 3 §12.18 (rise, going, width, headroom, parapet) and Part 4 §4.4.2.4.3 (occupancy-specific restatement, external stair and handrail figures). Check BIS for full-text access; check the current status at bis.gov.in.

Read this first. These figures are from NBC 2016, which BIS has withdrawn and replaced with SP 7:2026 (“National Building Construction Standards 2026”), gazette-notified in 2026 (reported 30 April 2026) and now BIS’s current national standard. NBC is also a model code: it has no legal force until your state or municipality adopts it into its own bye-laws, and local instruments may name an edition or refer to documents as amended. Confirm which edition your local bye-law currently adopts before you build to any figure above.