The short answer: 1.5 m solid, or 2.4 m if the top 0.9 m is open. Regulation 9.26 is one of the few provisions in this code a buyer can check with a tape measure on the day they visit.
Key takeaways
- Front compound wall: maximum 1.5 m above the central line of the front street.
- Up to 2.4 m is permitted where the top 0.9 m is of open type construction.
- Side and rear compound walls: maximum 1.5 m above the average ground level of the plot.
- Corner plot: 0.75 m for a length equal to the fanning of the road at the intersection, with the remaining 0.75 m as open construction such as railings.
- The front wall is measured from the street centre line, not from the plot's own level.
The heights
Chapter 9, Regulation 9.26, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 sets three figures and one exception.
Banded by which wall, and where
- Front wall, solidMaximum 1.5 m above the central line of the front street
- Front wall, part openUp to 2.4 m may be permitted if the top 0.9 m is of open type construction
- Side and rear wallsMaximum 1.5 m above the average ground level of the particular plot
- Corner plot, across the road fanningRestricted to 0.75 m for a length equal to the fanning of the road on the front and side of the intersection, with the remaining 0.75 m as open type construction such as railings
Source: Chapter 9, Regulation 9.26, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025
What changes the answer
The datum is the thing most people get wrong, because the front and the sides are measured from different places.
A front wall is measured from the central line of the front street. A side or rear wall is measured from the average ground level of the particular plot.
On a plot raised above the road, a front wall that looks 1.5 m from inside the compound can be well over 1.5 m above the street centre line. On a plot below road level the reverse applies. So a single tape measurement taken from inside the plot does not answer the front wall question.
The corner plot rule has a different purpose again. Dropping to 0.75 m across the fanning of the road is a sight line provision, which is why the balance may only be made up in open construction rather than in more wall.
The two neighbours in the same chapter
Two short provisions sit either side of this one and are worth knowing together, because all three concern what happens at the edges of a plot.
Chapter 9, Regulation 9.24, Wells permits wells intended for supply of water for human consumption or domestic purposes at a suitable place in a plot.
Chapter 9, Regulation 9.25, Septic Tanks requires every building, or group of buildings together, to be either connected to a drainage system or provided with a sub-soil dispersion system in the form of a septic tank of suitable size and technical specifications. Modern methods of disposal as specified by Government or Government bodies such as NEERI may also be permitted.
That connects to Regulation 9.4.3, which requires every bathroom and water closet's sewerage outlet to be connected to the sewerage system, or to a septic tank within the plot conforming to Regulation 9.25 where no system exists.
Related rule cards
- What the code guarantees inside your flat
- Parapets, lifts, refuge areas and exits
- What may project into the margins
Where the filings come in
Compound walls do not appear in the RERA register, and neither do wells or septic tanks. This is a sanctioned plan and site visit question.
What the register gives you free is the project's own account of itself at reragenie.com: the filed land area, the buildings and their floors, the promoter's extension history with the reasons given, the certifying professionals, 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, compares the possession slip with the median for the same pincode, 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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