The short answer: red is new, yellow hatched is coming down, and red hatched is a deviation. Regulation 2.2.18 fixes what every colour on a Maharashtra sanctioned plan means, which turns an intimidating drawing into something a buyer can genuinely read.
Key takeaways
- The colour code is not a convention. It is fixed by Regulation 2.2.18 and Table 2-B.
- Thick black is a plot line, and it is where the property actually ends.
- Green is an existing street, green dotted is a future street.
- Thick dotted black is the permissible building line, the limit construction may reach.
- Red filled in is proposed work. Yellow hatched is work proposed to be demolished.
- Red hatched means deviations, and it is the single most useful colour on the sheet.
- Red dotted is drainage and sewerage, thin black dotted is water supply.
- Sanctioned plans go on the Authority's website and stay there until a month after the last occupancy certificate.
Why the colours are worth learning
A buyer is usually handed a sanctioned plan late, in a stack, and told it is technical. It is technical, but the parts that would tell a non-architect something are colour coded, and the code is published.
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.2.18, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is one short sentence followed by Table 2-B: the plan shall be coloured as specified in the table, and prints shall be on one side of the paper only. Everything below comes from that table.
| What it is | How it appears | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Plot lines | Thick black | The actual boundary of the property |
| Existing street | Green | A road that is there now |
| Future street, if any | Green dotted | A road that is planned, and will one day be there |
| Permissible building lines | Thick dotted black | The limit construction is allowed to reach |
| Existing work | Black outline on a white plan, white on a blue print, blue on an ammonia print | What already stands |
| Work proposed to be demolished | Yellow hatched | What is coming down |
| Proposed work | Red, filled in on a white plan | What is being built |
| Drainage and sewerage work | Red dotted | Where the waste lines run |
| Water supply work | Thin black dotted | Where the water lines run |
| Deviations | Red hatched | Where the built form departs from what was approved |
Learn one of those and make it red hatched.
Red hatched is the notation for deviations, and a deviation is the difference between what was sanctioned and what exists. It appears on the same table as everything else, in the same official code, which means a deviation is a thing the plan is designed to show rather than something a buyer has to detect.
If you look at a set of plans for a project part way through construction and find red hatching, that is not a design flourish. That is the drawing telling you where the building has departed from its approval, and it is the point at which to ask what is being done about it.
The related question, what a deviation does to a completion certificate, is a separate one, and worth asking in the same conversation.
The green pair is the second most useful. Green is an existing street. Green dotted is a future street. A road drawn green dotted along the edge of a layout is a Development Plan road that has not been made yet, which is a very different thing from the access shown in a brochure. Whether that road ever gets built, and when, is a Planning Authority question, and the plan is where a buyer finds out the question exists at all.
The other drawings in the set
A sanctioned plan is rarely one sheet, and each has its own scale requirement.
Banded by drawing
- Key plan or location plan (2.2.4)Not less than 1:4000. Shows the boundary of the site against neighbourhood landmarks or features within a 200 m radius, or more
- Sub-division or layout plan (2.2.5(a))Not less than 1:500, or not less than 1:1000 for a layout of 4.0 hectares and above
Source: Chapter 2, Regulations 2.2.4 and 2.2.5(a), UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025
The layout plan is the one worth spending time on, because Regulation 2.2.5(a) lists exactly what it must contain, and each item is checkable:
- Scale, including a graphical scale, and a north point.
- The location of all proposed and existing roads with their existing and proposed widths, and all the proposals of the Development Plan or Town Planning Scheme, if any.
- Dimensions of plots.
- The location of drains, sewers, public facilities and services, electrical lines, natural water courses, water bodies and streams.
- A table indicating the size, area and use of every plot in the layout.
- A statement of the total area of the site, and the area used under roads and recreation.
Two of those items answer questions buyers usually ask a salesperson instead.
"All the proposals of the Development Plan" means a reservation crossing the layout has to be drawn. If a strip of the site is reserved for a road widening, a school or a garden, it appears on the layout plan the builder gave you, not only on a municipal document you would have to go and find. What can happen on a reserved plot is worth knowing before signing.
"Natural water courses, water bodies and streams" must be drawn too. That is directly relevant because a site within 6 m of a minor water course or 15 m of a major one is not eligible for construction at all. The nallah nobody mentions on a site visit is on the plan.
You do not have to ask the builder for it
Chapter 2, Regulation 2.6.4, Display of Sanctioned Permissions on Authority's Web-Site is short and underused. After a development permission is sanctioned, the Authority shall make available all plans relating to such permission on its website, if available, and shall keep them there until one month from the date of issuance of the last occupation certificate.
That is the whole life of the project. A sanctioned plan is a public document held by the Planning Authority for as long as the project is being built and handed over, so a buyer who is being told the plans are confidential is being told something the regulation does not support.
What to do with a set once you have it, in order:
- Find the plot line. Thick black. Everything the builder is selling has to sit inside it.
- Find the permissible building line. Thick dotted black. Compare it to where the red is.
- Look for yellow hatching. Something is being demolished. On a redevelopment that is expected. On a greenfield launch it is worth a question.
- Look for red hatching. Deviations. This is the one to raise.
- Check the green dotted lines. A future street is not a street.
- Read the area statement on the layout plan against what the sale document says the project is.
None of that requires reading a dimension.
What the register adds
The filing does not carry the plan itself, but it carries the numbers the plan should reconcile to, and free.
Every MahaRERA registration publishes the filed land area, the buildings and the floors proposed and sanctioned on each, and the filed documents list. If the sanctioned plan shows five buildings and the filing lists four, or the land area on the plan and the land area in the filing disagree, that is a question with a specific answer rather than a general worry. The filing also names the architect, engineer and chartered accountant who certify the project, and Regulation 2.2.16 requires the plan itself to carry the name, address and licence number of whoever signed it, so the two can be set against each other.
Related reading
- Who is allowed to sign your building plans
- Completion, occupancy and part OC: what each proves
- Sanctioned plans online, and the permission's clock
- Fourteen reasons a site may not be buildable
Where the filings come in
The plan comes from the Planning Authority. The register is what you check it against.
Every filing at reragenie.com is free to read and carries the filed land area, the buildings and their floors, the sanctioned and sold units where filed, the full list of documents the promoter has filed, the certifying architect, engineer and chartered accountant, the extension history with the reasons given, and any complaints or litigation with case numbers.
ReraGenie's buyer report, Rs 499, reads one project's full filing and the documents behind it, sets the promoter's record against the rest of the register, and includes a project watch for 90 days.
Source: Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations for Maharashtra, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025. Sanctioned under the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966.
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