Section 157 in West Bengal Municipal (Building) Rules, 2007
157. Criteria of using a piece of land as a building site.
(1) No piece of land shall be used as a building site, unless the Board of Councillors is satisfied that(a)land record is in conformity with the proposed construction;(b)the site of such building abuts an all weather public street or a projected public street or a private street or footpath or passage and is not less than 1.50 metres wide at any part; duly sanctioned and constructed and recorded in the Books of Municipality in accordance with the provisions of the Act or any other law in force immediately before the commencement of the Act :Provided that no building shall be erected so as to deprive any other building or building site of the means of access as specified above;(c)the site is at least 100 sq. metres in area:(d)the land is capable of being well drained by means of drainage facilities leading to the existing public drainage channel or jhora or under course of natural drainage line:(e)the site is reasonably secured from danger from hillside slips from above, below, or the sides;(f)the soil of the site is likely to sustain the construction of a building thereon; and for sites with inclinations of 30' and above or for proposed building above 6.5 metres in height or 500 sq. metres in coverage, such sustainability shall be justified, at the cost of applicant, by prior testing of soil and certification of stability of slopes and buildings conforming to the relevant codes of Bureau of Indian Standards including(i)BIS : 2070: IS Code of practice for design and construction of, shallow Foundation on rock;(ii)BIS : 3063: IS Code of practice for structural safety of building on shallow Foundation on rock;(iii)BIS : 4243 (Parts I & II) : Selection and development of site in hill areas-guidelines.Note. Detailed Geo-technical investigations, testing and certification, in such cases, shall be carried out by a competent geotechnical engineering organization or firm, recognised by the Board of Councillors.Explanation : Soil will also include rocks, boulders, laterite.(g)the building site does not contain any portion which forms a component of the open spaces prescribed under the regulations for any other building or building site thereof;(h)(i)no part of the land is located within 200 metres from the boundary of a sinking zone or probable slip zone, designated in a meeting by the Board of Councillors; or,(ii)within an area of distress or possible unequal settlements with wide fissures, regular cracks, faults, voids, rock, debris or landslides caused by subsidence or erosion, filling and disposal dumps including solid waste disposal or organic materials, or;(iii)it is located within an area showing high water table and fully saturated soils with a possibility of liquefaction and settlement on exposure to earthquakes or of water seepage in the foundations and erosion, or(iv)any other vulnerable area identified by the Board of Councillors, as unsafe for environmental, geological, ecological, wind, drain-age or any for other reasons;(i)no piece of land is located within five metres in any direction of the outside edge of such water courses;(j)adequate drainage measures and protection work as specified in rules 166 and 167 shall be taken by the applicant at his own cost if it is located on the permanent shadow zones of ridges and spurs or at the bottom of the valleys or gorges or located by nature of its orientation in a zone as identified by the Board of Councillors to be inadequately sunlit so as to make it unfit for human habitation, if any;(k)the site has not been subject to repeated blasting or, was a former quarry;(l)where the site is within five metres of any side of a tank, the owner will take such measures as shall prevent any risk of the drainage from such building passing into the tank;(m)where the site is within five metres of any side of a tank, water reservoir, jhora or natural spring, water source or natural drain or within two metres from either side of water pipe, sewer line and/or other underground utilities, the owner shall take such measures at his own cost, which shall prevent any risk of damage or landslide thereto by construction of such buildings.Note. The distance shall be measured from the outside edge of the jhora or drain or pipeline, as the case may be, on either side. In case of jhoras, such protection measure shall also have to be taken by the owner, at his own cost if the site is within 30 metres of jhora;(2)No piece of land located in Central business area as determined by the Board of Councillors or in sinking zone or areas of distress with cracks caused by subsidence or slides or any other areas identified by Board of Councillors, with reasons to be recorded in writing, shall be used as a building site without prior approval of the State Government.(3)No piece of land where a closed, sick or other industry was located or is in operation, shall be used as a site for construction of any building, other than an industrial building, without the prior approval of the competent authority appointed under clause (d) of section 2 of the Urban Land (Ceiling and Regulation) Act; 1976 (33 of 1976).
