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 is widely referred and used by state and local bodies regulating development and building construction activities, government construction departments and agencies, private construction agencies, builders, developers, building professionals and consultants, academic and research institutions, and building material and technology suppliers throughout the country. The Code mainly contains administrative regulations, development control rules and general building requirements; fire safety requirements; stipulations regarding materials, structural design and  construction (including safety); building and plumbingservices; landscape development, signs and outdoor display  tructures; guidelines for sustainability, asset and facility management, etc. The Code was first published in 1970 at the instance of Planning Commission, and last amended in 2015. Due to large scale changes in building construction activities, such as the nature of occupancies with prevalence of high rises and mixed occupancies, greater dependence and complicated nature of building services, development of new innovative construction materials and technologies, greater need for preservation of environment and recognition of the need for planned management of existing buildings and built environment, there has been a paradigm shift in building construction scenario. Considering these, 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. The revised Code has been brought out as National Building Code of India 2016 (NBC 2016). It contains 13 Parts, some of which are further divided into Sections, making a total of 33 chapters. The Code has been formally released and is now available in the public domain. The Code has been published in two volumes, and is riced at Rs.13,760. It may be procured from the sales counter at BIS Headquarters as well as various Regional and Branch Offices of BIS, information about which may be accessed from http://www.bis.org.in/dir/sales.htm 

For further information about NBC 2016, visit www.bis.org.in