Problems and prospects of building regulations in Shimla, India - A step towards achieving sustainable development

The physical form and pattern of built environment in a city is the outcome of prevalent planning and design standards and building regulations. Many common issues of built environment are the consequence of existing building regulations in that settlement as building regulations are borrowed from other cities and adopted from one place to another across the country. Building regulations are mostly specified for various uses and apply to the particular size of a plot in India, generally, irrespective of the shape and topography of the plot. As a result, often while complying with the provisions of one regulation will lead to noncompliance of provisions of other regulations. This further aggravates the problems of noncompliance with the existing building regulations and often results in unauthorized development and enormous environmental impacts. An attempt is made to understand different issues associated with building regulations of Shimla. Further, the effects of plot proportions on the compliance of building regulations are also studied in the case of Shimla, being the largest hilltop town of northern India on ecologically sensitive topography.