Most codes answer the height question with a number. UDCPR answers it with a table of authorities, and for the largest of them the number is not in the code at all.
Key takeaways
- In Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur, Nashik, the Municipal Corporations in MMR and the metropolitan and area development authorities within them, permissible height is as per approval from the fire department. The code names no figure.
- In the remaining Municipal Corporations it is 70 m. In all Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats and Regional Plan areas it is 50 m.
- All three tiers are measured excluding the parking floor up to 6.0 m of height.
- A building may reach 24.0 m on a road narrower than 12.0 m. Above 24.0 m the road must be at least 12.0 m wide.
- Regulation 6.11 keeps roof tanks, lift rooms, stair covers, parapets, two small terrace toilets and solar panels up to 1.8 m out of the height computation entirely.
Height is set by who governs the land
Chapter 6, Regulation 6.10, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025* applies to buildings in all land use zones unless otherwise specified in the respective regulation, and it opens with a three tier table. Every figure in it is stated excluding the parking floor up to 6.0 m of height, the same exclusion that runs through the margin rules.
| Authority or area | Permissible height, excluding parking floor up to 6.0 m |
|---|---|
| Pune, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Nagpur and Nashik Municipal Corporations, the Municipal Corporations in MMR, metropolitan authorities and area development authorities, Special Planning Authorities, and CIDCO as Planning Authority by virtue of being an NTDA within these areas | Permissible height as per approval from the fire department |
| The remaining Municipal Corporation areas, and area development authorities and Special Planning Authorities within them | 70 m |
| All Municipal Councils, Nagar Panchayats, non Municipal Council Development Plan areas and Regional Plan areas | 50 m |
The first row is the one that matters most and reads least like a rule. For those authorities the code declines to set a ceiling and hands the decision to the Chief Fire Officer or the Director of Fire Services. Height there is a fire safety determination, not a planning entitlement, which means the binding document is an approval rather than a table.
There is one route above the tiers. Higher height may be allowed in an Integrated Township Project where fire station and fire fighting facilities are to be constructed or provided, and also where such facilities already exist nearby, in both cases on production of the necessary certificate and an NOC from the Director of Fire Services.
Check the current position on 6.10 before relying on the table. The regulation carries an amendment marker, and the consolidation footnotes a directive issued by the Government under section 154 by Order No. UOR 31/2024/CR 100/2024/UD13 dated 25 September 2024, alongside three earlier insertions from December 2021 and October 2022.
A section 154 directive is an instrument outside the regulation text, and this series has already met what that can mean: the cessation clause in Regulation 10.15 turned on a modification brought into force under the same section and then stayed. The table above is what the 30 January 2025 edition prints; the directive is a separate document to obtain.
The road decides before the authority does
Sitting underneath the tiers is a gate that applies everywhere.
Banded by height of the building
- up to 24.0 mAllowed on roads less than 12.0 m wide
- more than 24.0 mMinimum road width 12.0 m
- In PMC, more than 36 mMinimum road width 12 m under Regulation 10.1.1, a city specific rule on top of this one
- In PMC, 50 m or moreMinimum road width 15 m under Regulation 10.1.1
Source: Chapter 6, Regulation 6.10 and Chapter 10, Regulation 10.1.1, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025
That is why the street outside is the first thing to measure on any plot with height in mind. A parcel served by an 9 m road is capped at 24.0 m before the authority tier is even consulted, and no amount of FSI changes it. Pune's chapter then adds two further thresholds inside PMC limits, and city chapters elsewhere do similar things.
Three further constraints sit in the same regulation and are absolute rather than negotiable.
- Near aerodromes, maximum height is subject to parameters framed by the Civil Aviation Authorities, or development permission is considered only after the applicant produces an NOC from the Airport Authority.
- Industrial chimneys near aerodromes must be of the height and character prescribed by the Civil Aviation Authorities, and all industrial chimneys of the character prescribed by the Chief Inspector of Steam Boilers and Smoke Nuisance.
- Buildings intended as hazardous godowns for storage of inflammable materials and explosives shall be single storied structures only.
What the code does not count
Chapter 6, Regulation 6.11, Height Exemptions is a single sentence listing what is left out of the computation of height. It is short, and it is worth knowing precisely, because these items are the difference between a compliant roof and a redesign.
- Roof tanks and their supports
- Two toilets on the terrace not exceeding 8 sq m built-up area and 3.0 m in height, in the case of a residential building
- Ventilating and air conditioning structures
- Lift rooms and similar service equipment
- Stair cover
- Chimneys and parapet walls
- Architectural features not exceeding the height allowed in the regulations
- Solar panels not exceeding 1.8 m in height
Two of those carry their own ceilings inside the exemption, which is easy to read past. The terrace toilets are exempt only up to 8 sq m and 3.0 m, and only in a residential building. Solar panels are exempt only up to 1.8 m. Above those figures the structure is not exempt, it is height, and on a building already at its tier limit that is the difference between an approval and a revision.
The architectural features line is the loosest of the eight and the most conditional: they are exempt only to the extent they do not exceed the height allowed in these regulations.
Above 70 metres, the question changes
Chapter 6, Regulation 6.12, Requirements in case of Building more than 70 m. Height applies once a building passes 70.0 m, and 6.10 routes every such building to it.
Compliance becomes mandatory with the requirements of structural design and stability, geo-technical and other aspects, and fire safety norms, as provided in UDCPR, the Maharashtra Fire (Prevention and Life Safety Measures) Act, 2006 and the National Building Code of India, as amended from time to time, for aspects UDCPR does not cover. Certificates from structural and geo-technical engineers confirming fulfilment must be attached with the application.
Then the sentence that closes the regulation, which is the one worth reading twice:
The responsibility of structural and other stability and safety of such high-rise buildings shall lie with owner / developer and concerned expert, consultant, executants appointed by owner / developer.
That allocation is not incidental. Above 70 m the code stops prescribing and starts requiring certification, and it places the liability for stability and safety on the owner or developer and the professionals they appoint, not on the authority that granted the permission.
For a buyer that has a practical consequence. The certifying professionals on a high rise are not a formality on a form; they are where the responsibility sits. Every MahaRERA filing names its architect, engineer and chartered accountant, and those names, and how many other projects each one certifies, are the sort of thing worth checking before a booking rather than after a dispute.
Where the height actually is
Source: ReraGenie analysis of the MahaRERA project registry, districts with 400 or more published projects filing floor counts, Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban excluded as outside UDCPR, captured 11 August 2026
The top of that list tracks the top tier of the height table fairly closely. Thane, Pune, Palghar and Raigarh contain the MMR corporations and Pune itself, where the code sets no numeric ceiling; Ratnagiri, Satara and Sindhudurg are largely municipal council and Regional Plan territory, where the ceiling is 50 m.
The exception is the useful part. Nashik is named in the first tier and sits at 3.4 percent, below Nagpur and far below Pune. Removing the numeric ceiling does not create demand for height. The code decides what is permitted; the market decides what gets registered, and on this evidence the two are not the same question.
Two limits on reading that chart against Regulation 6.10. The tiers are drawn by authority and the register records district and taluka, so a district contains a mixture of tiers: Pune district holds PMC, PCMC, PMRDA and Regional Plan land at once. And UDCPR sets height in metres while filings record floors, so this measures scale rather than compliance with a metre threshold.
Mumbai City and Mumbai Suburban are excluded because Chapter 1, Regulation 1.1, Extent and Jurisdiction* puts the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai outside UDCPR altogether. They are the two districts that build tallest in the state, and including them would have described a code that does not govern them.
What to check before designing to a height
- Identify the authority, then the tier. Fire department approval, 70 m or 50 m are three different projects.
- Measure the road before anything else, because 24.0 m is the ceiling below a 12.0 m road regardless of tier.
- Read the city chapter, since Pune and others add thresholds on top of 6.10.
- Check the aerodrome position early, because a Civil Aviation parameter or an Airport Authority NOC is a precondition, not a clearance to chase later.
- Above 70 m, budget the certification and know where liability sits, then read the margin rules, since H/5 and the 12.0 m cap decide what that height costs in open space.
Where the filings come in
The code says how tall a building may be. The register says how tall it was declared, who certified it, and whether it was finished when promised. ReraGenie's project analysis, Rs 2,999 for one project, reads a project's full MahaRERA filing: the promoter's extension history with their stated reasons, the slip between original and current completion dates against the median for the same pincode, construction progress against the eleven activity checklist building by building, the certifying architect, engineer and chartered accountant, and complaints and litigation with case numbers. The area consolidated report covers a whole micro-market at Rs 2,999 for the first project and Rs 1,999 per additional one.
Every project's filing is free to read at reragenie.com/projects, and the question that comes before all of this is which rulebook governs your plot.
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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