BENGALURU: Civil engineers in Karnataka are sounding an alarm over the Union government’s move to weaken the National Building Code (NBC), branding it a “dangerous dilution driven by ‘ease of doing business’ pressure, and vested interests”.
Members of the Karnataka Professional Civil Engineers’ Consortium, representing nearly 5,00,000 engineers, call the NBC a “sacrosanct” pillar of construction safety, quality and sustainability.
They warn that tampering with it risks public lives, structural failures and chaotic urban development. “The Union government’s push, influenced by businesses and non-engineering lobbies, aims to delete key chapters under the guise of deregulation,” they said.
“This would erase decades of expert wisdom, jeopardising safe, sustainable buildings in a sector contributing over 24 per cent to India’s GDP and employing millions.”
Engineering experts TS Rajgopalan, KR Srinath and Shrikant S Channal explained the “dilution” as removing “redundant regulations” to attract investment and align with Viksit Bharat 2047 goals. It targets the NBC’s framework covering administration, professional competence, design, construction and safety. “It’s essential technical knowledge for safe buildings,” they said.
The process lacks transparency, bypassing domain experts for financial and legal consultants, say critics. Consortium members are lobbying with parliamentarians, ministers and officials, rallying professionals and sending warnings via media and social platforms to halt the changes. “Ease of business must not mean ease of catastrophe,” they said.
As India aspires to the goal of Viksit Bharat by 2047, the experts demand that the government rethink amendments and preserve the NBC’s integrity for long-term public welfare.