Fire safety requirements by building height and occupancy in Maharashtra

What sets fire norms by building height in Maharashtra?

Section 3(1) of the Maharashtra Fire Prevention and Life Safety Measures Act 2006, as substituted by the Amendment Act of 2023 (Mah. XXIV of 2023), requires the owner, or the occupier where the owner is not traceable, of any building classified in Schedule I to obtain a Provisional, Final or Renewal Fire Safety Approval. The measures provided must be those recommended in that approval, and they may not be less than the minimum fire safety installations in Part 4 of the National Building Code of India and those specified against the building in Schedule I.

Schedule I is therefore the binding state matrix. It was substituted by section 24 of the 2023 Amendment Act, published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette Extraordinary on 11 May 2023. It lists occupancy groups down the side (residential A, educational B, institutional C, assembly D, business E, mercantile F, industrial G, storage H, hazardous J), splits each group into rows by height, floor area, persons or storeys, and gives one column per fire installation.

The columns are: fire extinguisher, first aid hose reel, down comer, wet riser, yard hydrant, automatic sprinkler system, manually operated electric fire alarm (MOEFA), automatic detection and alarm, underground static water tank, terrace water tank, and the pumps for each tank. A cell reads R (required), NR (not required), a quantity in litres or litres per minute, or a reference to one or more notes.

How do you read a Schedule I row?

Find the occupancy group first, then the row whose height band, floor area or headcount matches the building. Read every cell in that row, then read every note the row heading and each cell cite. The notes are not footnotes in the casual sense: they narrow or widen what the cell means, and some of them replace the cell entirely.

Height in these tables is the building height used for fire purposes. Get it from the approved sections, measured the way the applicable building regulations define it, not from the highest level number printed on a drawing.

Three conventions recur. A cell marked R with Note 4 means the system is required in the basement only, where the basement area exceeds 200 sq m. A quantity followed by a second figure in brackets with Note 6 means the bracketed figure is added if the basement exceeds 200 sq m. A cell that reads only Notes 18, 19, 21(a) and 21(b), as in the larger industrial and storage rows, means the protection is designed to the relevant Indian Standards rather than read from the table.

• Note 1: MOEFA includes a talk back system and a public address system in all buildings 15 m and above, except A-3 and A-4, where these are needed from 24 m. They are also needed in car parks over 300 sq m and in every multi-level car park.
• Note 2: automatic detection is not needed in the car parking area itself, but is needed in electrical rooms, cabins and storage areas within it.
• Note 8: in a complex with mixed occupancies, the most restrictive provisions of the National Building Code applicable to the individual occupancies govern.
• Note 9: the overhead tank (and terrace pump where listed) is provided for each building or tower, attached or detached, and is connected to the sprinklers, down comers and hose reels.
• Notes 15(a) and 15(b): sprinklers are fed from both the underground and terrace tanks where both are prescribed, and the entire building, common and livable areas, is sprinklered to the relevant Indian Standard.
• Note 21(a): where pumping capacities are not given in the table, the Indian Standard codes for hydrants, sprinklers and water spray apply, and design and installation must follow codes such as IS 13039, IS 15105 and IS 15325.

Which fire systems do apartment buildings (A-4) need at each height?

Dormitories (A-3) and apartment houses (A-4) share one block of Schedule I, which cites Notes 8 and 22. The table shows the five height rows. Note the step at 15 m, where a down comer, MOEFA and a 25,000 litre terrace tank come in, and the step above 35 m, where the down comer gives way to a wet riser and an underground tank.

So when is a sprinkler required in a Maharashtra apartment building? Throughout the building only above 45 m (rows 4 and 5). Up to 45 m the cell reads R with Note 4, which limits it to a basement over 200 sq m. Automatic detection appears only in the row above 60 m.

What about lodging houses and private dwellings (A-1, A-2)?

Lodging and rooming houses (A-1) and one or two family private dwellings (A-2) have their own block, which cites Note 3(d). Note 3(d) says buildings above 45 m are not permitted for A-1 and A-2, so the block stops at 45 m.

When do hotels (A-5) need sprinklers?

Hotels (A-5) below 15 m are split by the largest floor area on any floor. A hotel with a floor over 1,000 sq m needs sprinklers throughout, a wet riser, a yard hydrant and a 100,000 litre underground tank even below 15 m. From 15 m every hotel needs the full set. The terrace tank figures in the A-5 rows below 30 m are marked disputed in our rule store because the printed cell reads oddly against its note, so they are left out here; read them from the gazette before relying on a figure.

What do educational buildings (B) need?

Note 3(f) permits educational buildings above 30 m only for higher secondary education and above, subject to local firefighting facilities, and section 3(1B) of the Act, inserted in 2023, allows educational buildings above 30 m and up to 45 m in Municipal Corporation and Special Planning Authority areas if they meet Schedule I. The sprinkler and detection cells of row (4) are marked disputed in our rule store, because the printed cell carries no note reference where comparable rows do, so they are shown as such.

What do hospitals and nursing homes (C-1) need?

Hospitals, sanatoria and nursing homes (C-1) below 15 m are split by storeys and by whether the building has beds. A ground plus two or more storey hospital with beds needs sprinklers throughout, a wet riser and a 50,000 litre underground tank even though it is below 15 m. Note 3(e) allows C-1 buildings above 45 m only if they are in consonance with the parameters of the National Fire Protection Association (USA) for such occupancies.

What do assembly (D), business (E) and mercantile (F) buildings need?

Note 3(b) does not permit assembly (D) and mercantile (F) buildings, or custodial and penal institutions (C-2, C-3), above 30 m. Business buildings (E) have no such cap. For offices the sprinkler threshold is clear: R with Note 4 (basement only) up to 15 m, and R throughout above 15 m. For assembly buildings sprinklers are required throughout from above 10 m.

D-7 is not tabulated in Schedule I: every cell refers to D-7 of Table 7 of Part 4 of the National Building Code of India.

What do industrial (G) and storage (H) buildings need?

Industrial rows are split by the aggregate floor area of the largest building on the plot, not by height. Note 3(c) does not permit industrial buildings above 24 m unless required for the process, nor storage buildings above 24 m; Note 3(g) allows storage between 15 m and 24 m subject to local firefighting facilities. Note 16(a) limits artisan, village, cottage and tiny sector units to extinguishers and fire buckets, and Note 16(b) treats several industries in one building as moderate hazard with no high hazard occupancy allowed.

Where a row reads Notes 18, 19, 21(a) and 21(b), the whole occupancy is protected by hydrants, sprinklers, water spray, water mist, gas systems, foam and alarms as applicable under the relevant Indian Standards. That covers G-1 above 5,000 sq m, G-2 above 2,000 sq m, all G-3, storage row (2) and storage above 15 m.

Is the fire NOC height 15 m or 24 m in Maharashtra?

Online answers conflict, so here is what the binding texts in our rule store do and do not say. Section 3(1) of the Act, as substituted in 2023, applies the approval requirement to the owner or occupier of any building classified in Schedule I. Schedule I itself starts below 15 m: every occupancy group has a row for buildings less than 15 m (or less than 10 m), with at least an extinguisher required. The Act text we hold sets no 15 m or 24 m floor below which fire safety approval is not needed.

Two figures in the texts are often confused with an NOC threshold. First, 15 m is where most Schedule I rows step up (down comer or wet riser, MOEFA with public address under Note 1, bigger tanks), and the fee note in Schedule II says no fire and emergency service fee is levied for A-2 and A-4 buildings below 15 m. That is a fee exemption, not an exemption from the Act. Second, 24 m is a band boundary for educational, institutional, assembly, business, mercantile and storage rows, the limit for industrial and storage buildings under Note 3(c), and the height from which A-3 and A-4 buildings need talk back and public address under Note 1.

Whether a particular planning authority routes a small residential building below 15 m to the Chief Fire Officer for a separate NOC is set by the local building regulations and practice, which our rule store does not hold. Check with the authority that sanctions the plan, and do not rely on a blog figure.

Where does the design detail come from?

Schedule I says what must be provided and in some cases how much water. It does not say how a system is designed. Section 3(1) makes Part 4 of the National Building Code of India the floor for the measures, and Note 21(a) sends the hydrant, sprinkler and spray design to the Indian Standards, naming IS 13039, IS 15105 and IS 15325 as examples. Exits, travel distance, staircases, refuge areas and fire lifts are also in NBC 2016 Part 4, and in its successor NBCS 2026 Part F for buildings to which it applies.

We do not reproduce NBC, NBCS or IS text here because it is BIS copyright. Read those clauses in a licensed copy, or ask Fire Code Expert, which cites the clause number in its answer.