Section 4 in Tamil Nadu Panchayats Building Rules, 1997
4. Application for approval of sites for buildings and huts.
(1)Every person who intends to construct or reconstruct or alter or add to a building or to a hut shall submit an application to the Executive Authority for the approval of the site and for permission to execute the work, in the Form specified in Appendix-B, with such variations as circumstances may require which shall be accompanied by -(a)a site plan (in triplicate) of the land on which the building or hut is to be constructed, reconstructed or altered or added to as far as may be necessary, complying with the requirements specified in Appendix-C;(b)a plan or plans (in triplicate) of the building or hut to be constructed, reconstructed or altered or added to as far as may be necessary, complying with the requirements specified in Appendix-D;(c)a specification (in triplicate) as far as may be necessary complying with the requirements specified in Appendix-E; and(d)the information as to the purpose for which the building or hut is proposed to be constructed, reconstructed or altered or added to:Provided that the construction or reconstruction or addition or alteration to residential houses, all such other public buildings like commercial buildings, hotels, resorts and factory buildings exceeding a plinth area of 250 square metres in the Panchayats of Nilgiris district shall be approved by the Executive Authority after obtaining the permission of the Committee for Architectural and Aesthetic Aspects headed by the Collector of the Nilgiris district.(2)The application as well as plan specifications and the information as required under items (a), (b), (c) and (d) of sub-rule (1) shall be signed by the owner of the site or accompanied by a letter of authority or consent from the owner of the site, if the applicant himself is not the owner.(3)No site shall be used for the construction of a building intended for public worship or religious purposes without the prior approval of the Collector of the district who may refuse such approval, if in his opinion, the use of the site and buildings is likely to endanger public peace and order.(4)No site which is situated within a distance of ninety metres from a place used as a burning or burial place or ground shall be used for construction of any building, without the previous approval of the Executive Authority and no building intended for human habitation shall be built within ninety metres of such burning or burial place or ground, unless such burning or burial place or ground was closed for burning or burial of corpses remained so closed for a period of not less than five years, as ascertained from the record maintained by the Village Panchayat:Provided that no existing building situated within ninety metres from any burning or burial place or ground shall be reconstructed or added to without the previous approval of the Executive Authority.(5)No approval to the construction or reconstruction, or addition or alteration to a building shall be given in case where the clearance between the building and the aerial line has been lower than -(a)1.5 metres for low tension lines, 1.75 metres from high tension lines from accessible portions or buildings measured horizontally and 1.25 metres for both low tension and high tension lines from inaccessible portions measured horizontally;(b)2.5 metres from portions of buildings not accessible to persons measured vertically; and(c)4.5 metres from accessible portions of buildings measured vertically.(6)For effective conservation of rain water, no approval to the construction or addition or alteration to a building (other than a hut) including houses constructed by Government for below poverty line families under the poverty alleviation programmes or building constructed by any agency under the control of the Government, shall be given if the application for construction, re-construction, alteration or addition to such a building does not contain provision for water conservation and rainwater harvesting as specified below: -(A)Tiled and sloped terrace building. - (1) In the tiled or sloped building, semi circular gutters of width 15 to 25 centimetres of plastic or any other material shall be provided on the down side roof slopes of the building for harvesting rain water. The gutter shall be connected at the down stream end with a down pipe of 75 to 100 millimetres diameter, depending upon roof area and size of tank to convey the harvested rainwater from gutters to a plastic or other material storage tank or sump (through a filter unit). An inlet screen (wire mesh to prevent entry of dry leaves and other debris into the down-pipe shall be fitted. The collected rainwater from the roof shall be allowed to pass through a filter unit. The filter unit shall be filled with suitable filter material such as well-burnt broken bricks (or pebbles) up to 5 centimetres from top. The top 15 centimetres shall be filled up with coarse sand. The filter unit shall be placed either over a storage tank or at bottom of the down pipe.(2)The filtered rain water shall be collected in a collection tank or storage tank placed over the ground or underground. The shape of the tank shall be cylindrical, rectangular or square of suitable size capacity ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 litres or even higher depending on the roof area. The material of construction shall be brickwork, stone work, cement bricks, ferro-cement, high density polyethylene (HDPE), plain cement concrete or reinforced cement concrete. The storage tanks/collection tanks shall be provided with pipe mixtures at appropriate places to draw the water to clean the tank and to dispose of the excess water depending upon use/reuse either to openwell/borewell or to a percolation pit.(B)Ordinary Building (ground + first Floor). - (1) Percolation pits of 30 to 45 centimetres diametre and of depth adequate not less than one metre to recharge the ground, shall be made. This pit shall be filled with suitable filter material such as well-burnt broken bricks (or pebbles) up to 15 centimetres from top. The top 15 centimetres shall be filled up with coarse sand. The top of this pit shall be covered with perforated reinforced concrete cement (RCC) slab or of any other material, wherever considered necessary. The number of such percolation pits shall be provided on the basis of one pit per 30 square metres of available open terrace area /plinth area. The cross distance between the pits shall be minimum 3 metres.(2)Wherever an open well or borewell, as the case may be, is available within the building premises, the rain water collected from the open terrace shall be collected through pipes of 150 millimetres diametre or other suitable sizes and led to filter pit of size 60 centimetres x 60 centimetres x 60 centimetres (with appropriate filter material) and, then, led into the openwell/borewell through 150 millimetres diametre or other suitable pipes.(3)Wherever existing water storage sumps are available, the rain water so collected, after it passes through the filter, shall be allowed to flow to the sump through closed pipes. An overflow pipe shall be provided to the storage sump so that the surplus water is led into the nearby openwell/borewell/percolation pit.(C)Ordinary building (ground + 2 floors and above) and multi-star eyed building. - (1) The specification detailed in item 'B' above for ordinary building (ground + first floor) shall also applicable to building specified in this category.(2)In addition to the percolation pits of 30 centimetres diametre shall be provided at 3 metre interval, a pit of 1 to 1.5 metres width and appropriate depth, so as to recharge the ground, shall be provided all along the plinth a boundary depending upon the soil classification below ground. This pit shall be filled with appropriate filter material namely, broken bricks, pebbles, broken stones, etc., at the bottom and the top 15 to 25 centimetres shall be filled with coarse sand. The ground/pavement surface around the building shall be sloped towards the percolation pit so that rain water from terrace and sides, open spaces, etc., flow over this sloped surfaces and spread into the filter bed all around. Masonry dwarf walls of 5 to 7.5 centimetres or of suitable height depending upon the site conditions shall be constructed, if necessary, at the entrance and exit gates to allow the rain water collected within the compound to recharge the ground within the premises itself, and from draining out to the road.(3)If the sub-soil is not a permeable one (namely, clay or black cotton) appropriate recharge structures, namely, recharge shaft, or bore pit shall be provided below the filtration pits so as to recharge the ground.(D)Group development, Industries and Institutional building. - (1) For buildings for ground + first floor or ground+2 and above located within group development institutional and industrial premises, the specification detailed in items A, B and C above shall apply.(2)The surface run off rain water in the open spaces within the group development/industrial, institutional premises shall be allowed to ran towards collection drains of suitable size and these drains shall be constructed as rain water-friendly storm water drains. All the approach and access roads to the buildings within the group development/industrial/institutional premises shall also be provided with rainwater-friendly storm water drains. These rain water-friendly storm water drains shall not have paved bottom. If, adequate spaces are available in low lying areas, percolation ponds of suitable size shall be formed and these rain water-friendly storm water drains shall be led into the percolation ponds for recharging the ground.(3)For other localised low lying areas, recharge pits of size of minimum 1 metre x 1 metre x 1 metre diametre shall be provided wherever needed, so as to prevent rainwater stagnation around the building. For other places, catch water pit structures of size 30 centimetres diametre and 30 centimetres depth or higher depth as necessary shall be provided wherever necessary. For existing pave storm water drains, catch-water pits of 30 centimetres diametre and 30 centimetres depth or higher depth, as necessary, shall be provided at the bottom of these drain at 10 to 15 metres intervals. These catch water pits shall be filled with appropriate filter material as described in item "B" above for Ordinary building (ground + first floor).Explanation. - Any other modifications, additional structures or alternative designs, furnished by the applicant shall be considered for approval, if it conforms to rain water harvesting concept to the satisfaction of the competent authority for building plan approval. Provision of water harvesting structures for re-use of used water like water emanating from kitchens and bathrooms for flushing toilets, gardening etc. shall be considered for approval on its merits:Provided that the Government may grant one year time to comply with rain water harvesting in all existing buildings which may extendable up to two years in case of below poverty line families.
