Building under construction. (symbolic image)

New Delhi: The National Building Code (NBC) will be replaced by the National Building Standards (NBS) by the end of April, giving states and municipal bodies authority over matters such as development control norms, fire safety and governance. This will be done because the land and buildings come under their jurisdiction.The Cabinet Secretariat has directed the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to complete this work.Experts, who have been involved in the preparation of the latest NBC draft, said matters related to fire safety should be part of the proposed standard and should not be changed without keeping in mind the safety of occupants and people at large. However, he said, changes to parts of the existing Code are possible until the NBS is published.People aware of the development said the regulation cell under the Cabinet Secretariat has asked BIS to create a “handbook” for parts of the NBC, including a chapter related to fire safety, which states can refer to as best practices.“NBC is voluntary in nature, and hence, we feel that codes can be in existence, and states can make changes in them. It is important to maintain the parts related to fire safety. We must realize that fire safety engineering is largely missing in our country and if we do not have a national standard, its impact will be visible given that we lack strong fire safety infrastructure,” said Srinivas Valluri, national president of the Fire and Security Association of India (FSAI), which Has been a member of the technical committee for NBC 2016. And 2025.Confirming this, US Chhillar, another member of the technical committee, said the national standard could help guide states and municipal bodies that otherwise have less capacity on such matters. Chhillar, director general of the Institution of Fire Engineers, said, “We (the technical committee) want to inform the government about the need for these standards. But the government wants us to change the sections as per their instructions.”Recently the Cabinet Secretariat had intervened to withdraw the revised 2025 BIS seismic zoning map standard after the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs flagged cost overruns, technical complexity and lack of stakeholder consultation of metro rail projects. TOI has learned that BIS was directed to withdraw the draft standards “immediately”.People aware of the developments said the updation of the NBC was done after more than two years of work and when it was about to be published, in June last year the Cabinet Secretariat wrote to all the states saying that it is not mandatory to follow the NBC. After this, BIS was instructed to make it only a standard document and change the provisions.