Laws Related To Building On Hilly Areas

Laws Related to
Building on Hilly
Areas
Based on Indian Standards (IS) and National Building Codes (NBC) for proper
contextual development:
● Buildings should be designed with the enforced Floor Area Ratio (FAR) of 1.75 or lower, avoiding any
extra construction below the floor level in the form of partial basements. These underground structures
are often illegally excluded from the number of stories disclosed in the building plan.
● The department of urban development prescribes that no more than three stories be built, while
avoiding excavation below road level.
● Front and rear setbacks should be present. The setbacks of a building should not be used for
balconies and roof overhangs, as these would reduce the natural daylight entering a building and
would also lead to encroachments on the road.
● While developing multiple structures side by side, say for a commercial complex or a row of
tenements, the building facades should be kept at a level with each other. Haphazard facades would
require excavation, which would disturb the level of the road in front of the building.
● To protect a building against a landslide and to achieve a flat surface on the uphill side of a road,
‘retaining-walls’ of up to 6-8 m in height should be built.
● The use of wood in the construction should be minimal to prevent a fire hazard.
● Sufficient drainage should be provided to avoid the harm done to a building from a cloudburst.
● The ground coverage after fulfilling setback conditions can vary between 45 percent and 60 percent.
Breaking this norm would lead to high building footprint and less space between buildings.
IS 14680:1999 Landslide control Laws relating to building on hilly
areas
Landslide preventive techniques are divided in two groups: Direct methods, and Indirect methods.
• Direct methods are further subdivided into:
1. restraining structures, for example retaining walls, anchored walls, restraining piles, etc.
2. easing of pressure by excavation;
3. reconstruction of slope using reinforced earth; and
4. rock reinforcement.
• Indirect methods involve erosion control measures, improvement in surface and sub-surface drainage.
• Restraining structures:
Restraining structures are generally used to control slope stability problems (height <4 m).
• Retaining walls
i. Retaining walls up to 3m height are constructed in random rubble dry stone masonry.
ii. Retaining walls above 3 m height are built in lime/cement mortar masonry and laid at a distance of 3m
centre to centre apart both in the horizontal and vertical directions with 0.6m top width.
iii. Masonry courses shall be normal to face with the front batter of 1 (Horizontal), in 3 (Vertical) and the
back vertical face maybe left rough.
IS 14680:1999 Landslide control Laws relating to building on hilly areas
• Gabions/sausage walls
i. in-situ
ii. Cribwall is formed in a wooden crib/mesh, in which dry stone masonry is built.
iii. Gabions/sausage walls are made by forming sausages of steel wire-netting of 4.00 mm diameter or
geogrid having 100mm square or hexagonal holes and filling the sausages with hard local boulder stones
and wrapping the wire net at the top.
• Concrete retaining walls
i. concrete gravity walls are very expensive.
ii. The formula for the safety factor may be used to estimate resistance required to lateral thrust.
iii. The standard practice is to include weep holes in designing the wall.
iv. The design consideration of retaining walls shall be as per IS 14458( Part 2 ).
• Restraining structures using empty bitumen drum
i. Temporary low cost restraining structures
ii. up to a maximum height of 3 m
iii. constructed as a short term measure using empty bitumen drums, landslide debris and nominal
reinforcing materials.
iv. This wall is suitably anchored at the base and also to the backfill for preventing sliding and tilting.
• Anchored walls
i. Free-standing gravity walls have an upper limit of about 10 m and slides of only modest proportions may
be prevented or stabilized using this type of structures.
ii. Walls with prestressed anchors, have a major advantage by actively opposing the movement of the soil
mass,rather than having passively as unstressed anchors and gravity structures.
iii. Tie-back wall design uses the basic principle of carrying the backfill forces on the wall by a ‘tie’ system
to transfer the imposed load to an area behind the slide mass where satisfactory resistance can be
established.
• Restraining piles
a. Restraining piles are used where, due to the limitation of space, it is not possible to flatten the slopes or
use other gravity type structures to improve the slope stability.
b. The pile is defined as a bending pile since its length is long compared to its diameter.
• Excavation Methods
i. Removal of unstable materials: The removal of potentially unstable material shall vary from simple
stripping of a surface layer by a few meters to depths as great as 50 m. This method is suitable for
rotational slides.
ii. Flattening of slopes: Most talus soil are likely to be stable on 2:1 slopes for a cut up to 6 m in height but
may require 3: 1 slopes for cuts greater than 9 m in height.
• Reconstruction of Slope Using Reinforced Earth

i. Reinforced earth using metallic stripes: Reinforced earth wallis economical where height is more
than 5.0 m.
ii. Geofabric reinforcement structure on slopes
iii. Slope reinforcement by soil nailing
iv. Micropiles, root piles for slope stabilization:
a. The piles maybe wooden piles or sand and cement grout with a single 25 to 30 mm diameter
reinforcing
bars cast in-situ.
b. section varying from O.4m X1.0 mto 0.75 m ~ 2.0 m reinforced concrete capping beams running
along the
contours.
c. The actual diameter of micro-piles may vary from 100 to 125 mm and the length maybe up to 15m
or so.
v. Rock Reinforcement
URDPFI
Laws relating to building on hilly areas
• Identification of Developable Area: Hill Town Developable Area = Hill town jurisdiction area – Natural
Ecological Area
Earthquake/landslide prone, cliffs and environmentally hazardous area, areas adjacent to fault lines,
areas with slope higher than
45 degree, flood plain and areas adjacent to major drainage lines for general guidance and all
environmentally sensitive areas
• The hillside with less than 30° slope are in general stable.
• The maximum height of the building to be fixed, such as in States of Meghalaya maximum building
height permitted is 15 mete
rs on hills.
• The houses are required to be constructed on partially sloping land made available by cut and fill.
• Cut slopes with height less than 5 m or two to three storey heights of residential buildings are in
general stable.
• Street orientation shall preferably be East‐West to allow for maximum South sun to enter the
buildings.
• The street shall be wide enough to ensure that the buildings on one side do not shade those on the
other side.
• Hill Road Manual (IRC: SP: 48‐1998) should be referred to for detailed guidelines for planning roads
in Hilly Areas.
URDPFI
Laws relating to building on hilly areas
Provisions for Landslide Hazard Mitigation, Seismic Microzonation and mitigation of Liquefaction hazard
should be integrated
Specific aspects for New Hill Towns:
• Travelling time from nearest town to the new township should be at least one hour or 20 Km.
• area should ideally not be less than 40 hectares and self sufficient.
Specific aspects for Buildings in Hilly area
• A minimum clearance of 1.5 m should be provided between toe of boundary wall and building wall.
• On the uphill side of the building on a sloping site, the natural flow of the water shall be diverted away
from the foundations.
• The slope of ground all around building should be not less than 1: 50 built in such a way that rain water
does not find way to ingress in ground excessively and moves away quickly to surface drains or away
on adjoining hill surface towards natural streams.
• A minimum of 0.75 m wide apron should be provided all around the building to prevent entry of water
into foundation.
• Stepped terrace development and stepped storeyed building construction may be adopted for offices,
schools and other building complexes.
• Buildings to be provided with good drainage facilities to prevent excessive saturation of sub
surface formations. Construction should not obstruct existing surface drainage courses.
IS 14243:1995 ➢ This standard (Part 2) gives
guidelines for the selection of building
SELECTION AND
sites in mountainous terrains on various
DEVELOPMENT OF types of soils and rock with least slope
SITE FOR BUILDING IN stabilization and/or protection works.
HILL AREAS- An individual building site, depending
GUIDELINES upon the specific requirement,
importance and special foundation soil
and terrain characteristics may require
separate detailed study and
investigations.
SELECTION AND DEVELOPMENT
1. STABILITY OF SLOPES
2. SELECTION OF BUILDING SITES IN HILLY AREAS
3. GEOTECHNICAL INVESTIGATIONS
4. TERRACE DEVELOPMENT
5. STEPPED TERRACE DEVELOPMENT
6. STABILITY OF SLOPES AND STEPPED TERRACES
7. STILT FOUNDATIONS FOR ECO-FRIENDLY CONSTRUCTION
8. SURFACE PROTECTION OF HIGH STEEP CUT SLOPES
7-19 m height regulations
FAR ranges from 1.25-2
Ground coverage ranges

from 33 - 70 %
Permissible number of
storeys 4+1
Issues of development in Himalayan hill towns
The various issues/ problems faced by hill towns due to high urbanisation and rapid development are
as follows:
● Heavy pressure on the housing and existing infrastructural facilities is exerted due to high
population increase due to migration from the surrounding regions as well as a high influx of
tourists which leads to construction of more multi-storeyed buildings in hill towns for residential,
office, and commercial purposes.
● Hills stations are mostly located in ecologically sensitive zones. The ecological balance of towns
is affected due to high density development having multi storeyed buildings and lower carrying
capacities of hill towns. Also,degradation of natural topography, vegetation and disturbance of
natural drainage pattern due to massive construction has resulted in environmental degradation
in the hill towns.
● Hill stations are presently facing problems of congestion, water scarcity, landslides, pollution of
lakes and streams, and destruction of scenic beauty and visual blight, which are the outcomes of
rapid urbanisation in and around hill towns.

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Laws Related to

• Reconstruction of Slope Using Reinforced Earth

FAR ranges from 1.25-2

Ground coverage ranges

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