NBC

1. NATIONAL BUILDING CODE
2016
M.V. Deshmukh
Director Govt. Affairs, Fire Safe India Foundation

2. What is National Building Code
About
Deals with building features to enhance Life and Fire safety.
Provides elaborate clauses with regard to Life safety and
appropriate fire fighting capabilities.
Exits in Building versus Importance of Life Safety.
Involvement of Qualified building professionals and Trained
Fire Protection Engineers from inception of any project.
Deals with Potential Panic Hazard and measures to
minimize Panic and hence control on accidents and also
provisions for disaster control.

3. What is National Building Code
About (contd)
Flexibility V/S Rigidity i.e. where one shall be
rigid and where one can be flexible without
diluting the purpose
Limitation of Height and areas of Building for
Occupants Safety.
Fire protection systems in place according to the
hazards
Requirements of fire safety professionals and
staff in readiness at any building to combat
fires.

4. EXISTING ANNEXURES – 2005
 A - CALORIFIC VALUE OF COMMON
MATERIALS
 B - CLASSIFICATION OF INDUSTRIAL
OCCUPANCIES
 C - FIRE RATING OF BUILDING COMPONENTS
 D - FIRE DRILLS AND EVACUATION
PROCEDURES
 E - ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR HIGH

5. ADDED ANNEXURES 2016
 F – ATRIUM
 G - COMMERCIAL KITCHENS
 H - CAR PARKING FACILITIES
 J - FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY FOR METRO
STATIONS
 K - FIRE AND LIFE SAFETY FOR METRO
TRAINWAYS
 M - FIRE PROTECTION FOR VENTING IN

6. Revision of NBC, Part 4
 Part 4 of the National Building Code deals with
safety from fire and explosion. It specifies
classification of buildings and the necessary
requirements to minimize danger to life from
fire, smoke and fumes or panic before the
building or area is evacuated.

7. Classification of Buildings
 Group A Residential
 Group B Educational
 Group C Institutional
 Group D Assembly
 Group E Business
 Group F Mercantile
 Group G Industrial
 Group H Storage
 Group J Hazardous

8. ABSOLUTE SAFETY FROM FIRE IS NOT
ATTAINABLE IN PRACTICE
 The objective of this part is to specify
measures that will provide that degree of
safety from fire which can be reasonably
achieved.
 The Code endeavors to avoid requirements
that might involve unreasonable hardships or
unnecessary inconvenience or interference
with normal use and occupancy of buildings,
insist upon compliance with minimum
standards for fire safety necessary in public
interest.
 It is desirable to use such
equipment/installation duly certified under the
BIS Certifications Marks Scheme.

9. LIFE SAFETY
General Exit
requirements
Occupants Load
Capacities of Exit
Arrangement of
Exits
Number of Exits
Doorways
Corridors/Passage
ways
Horizontal Exits
Internal Staircases
External
Staircases
Pressurization of
escape routes
Ramps
Refuge Area
Fire Lifts/Fire
Tower
Emergency escape
lighting/
Illumination
Fire detection and
Warning
Evacuation

10. Fire Protection
Extinguishers
Small Bore Hose
Reels
Dry Riser
Wet Riser
Down comer
Yard Hydrant
system
Automatic
Sprinkler
Installation
Manual Fire Alarm
System
Automatic Fire
Alarm System
Underground
Storage Tank
Terrace Tank
Ground level
Pumps
Terrace level
Pumps

11. PASSIVE SYSTEMS
Sealing Openings in Separating walls and Floors
(for all types of construction)
Fire Stops/Enclosure of Openings
Air-conditioning/Ventilation (Dampers)
Surface of Flame Spread definitions
Glazing/Skylights (Wired Glass)

12.  Reaction to fire is a material characteristic.
 To reduce the probability of an outbreak and
consequent growth in fire, where it is not
possible to segregate all possible known
ignition sources from combustible material,
the contents and room lining should be such
that they are not easily ignitable and, even if
ignition occurs, the ensuing fire will not
develop rapidly.
Reaction to Fire & Fire
Resistance

14. TABLE 1
FIRE RESISTANCE RATING OF
STRUCTURAL AND NON-
STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS

15. Fire Resistance Rating of Structural
Elements Clauses 3.3.1 and 3.3.2

16. The Concept of Fire
Compartmentation

18. Stack Effect

19. Smoke Effect in the Atrium

29. Proposed Roadmap
 Specific norms pertaining to each
application area in the revised National
Building Codes.
 Enforcement of the norms, by regulatory
authorities such as Planning Authorities,
Fire & Emergency Service.
 Acceptance of worldwide test standards,
besides British Standard (BS) and
American Standard of Testing of Materials
(ASTM), by regulatory bodies, like Bureau
of Indian Standards and Fire Service.

30. Proposed Roadmap(contd)
 Continuing awareness campaign to
increase knowledge on the applications,
the problems associated and the solutions.
 Educating the future Architects, Civil
Engineers by incorporating the concept in
syllabus of Architectural and Civil
Engineering colleges.
 More testing institutes in collaboration with
international testing institutes.

31. Thank You