Two tables in Chapter 3 decide the shape of every plotted development in Maharashtra, and the first of them uses a variable most people would not expect.
Key takeaways
- Internal road width in a layout is set by the length of the road, not by the traffic it is expected to carry.
- Residential: 9.00 m up to 150 m of length, 12.00 m above 150 and up to 300 m, and 15.00 m above 300 m.
- Non-residential is one band wider throughout: 12.0 m, 15.0 m, and 18.0 m or more.
- Where EWS plots of 100 sq m or less are proposed, a 4.5 m road up to 60 m and a 6.0 m road up to 100 m may be permitted, with EWS plots on both sides.
- Minimum plot area is 30 sq m for residential and commercial, and 20 sq m for EWS and public authority schemes.
- A layout must be submitted whenever more than one building is proposed, or plots are divided, subdivided or amalgamated.
When a layout has to be prepared at all
Chapter 3, Regulation 3.3.1, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 sets four triggers. A building layout or subdivision proposal must be submitted when more than one building, other than accessory buildings for a residential building, is proposed on any land; when development or redevelopment of a tract includes division, subdivision or amalgamation of plots for various land uses; when a group housing scheme or campus or cluster planning of any use is proposed; and a two stage approval process applies to such proposals where necessary.
The first trigger is broader than it sounds. Two buildings on one holding is a layout, which brings the internal road table, the open space obligation and the plot minimums into play together.
Road width is a function of road length
Chapter 3, Regulation 3.3.2, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 carries two tables, and the variable in both is length.
| Length of internal road | Residential development, Table 3A | Other than residential, Table 3B |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 150 m | 9.00 m | 12.0 m |
| Above 150 m and up to 300 m | 12.00 m | 15.0 m |
| Above 300 m | 15.00 m | 18.0 m or more |
Reading that as a designer rather than as a table explains a lot about how Maharashtra layouts are shaped.
A long straight spine road is expensive in land, because crossing 150 m or 300 m of length pushes the whole road into the next width band. Breaking the same circulation into shorter segments, each under a threshold, is materially cheaper in land given up. That is a legitimate design response and it is why layouts often read as a series of short streets rather than one long one.
It also means a road's width tells you something about the layout's geometry rather than about its traffic. A 15 m internal road is not necessarily a busy one; it is a long one.
The note under Table 3A carves out the case where the standard widths would defeat the purpose. For a layout, or part of a layout, where plots of 100 sq m or less are proposed for Economically Weaker Sections, a 4.5 m wide road of length up to 60.0 m and a 6.0 m wide road of length up to 100 m may be permitted, so that EWS plots abut on both sides of such roads.
That last phrase is the reason for the relaxation. At 9 m the road would consume so much of a small-plot layout that the plots either side could not be delivered.
And then the roads may be called in
Chapter 3, Regulation 3.3.11, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is the provision that decides what happens to that land afterwards. Whenever called upon by the Authority, areas under internal layout roads shall be handed over to the Planning Authority by way of deed, after the roads have been developed, within the period specified in the commencement letter or development permission, and no compensation shall be paid.
That is worth setting against Regulation 11.2.3, which excludes from TDR any case where a layout has already been sanctioned with the layout roads incorporated into it. Between the two, road land in a sanctioned layout is neither compensated on handover nor recoverable as development rights.
How small a plot can be
Chapter 3, Regulation 3.7, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 is a short table with two rows that matter.
| Use | Minimum plot area | Minimum plot width |
|---|---|---|
| Residential and commercial | 30 sq m | As per Table 6-D |
| Plots in EWS housing, high density housing, sites and services, slum upgradation or a reconstruction scheme by a public authority | 20 sq m |
For the residential and commercial row, the type of development follows what the earlier approved layout specified or anticipated, whether row, semi-detached or detached, and in other cases follows what the construction area permits once marginal distances are taken into account.
Thirty square metres is a smaller figure than most people expect from a development control code, and it is worth pairing with two things covered elsewhere in this series.
Regulation 9.2.1 sets no minimum size for a habitable room at all, leaving it to the requirement and convenience of the owner. And Table 8-B requires no car parking for a flat below 30 sq m of carpet area.
Read together, the code's approach to small dwellings is consistent: it does not set a floor on size, and it withdraws obligations at the small end rather than making them unaffordable. Whether that is the right policy is a question this article cannot settle. What it means for a reader is that "compliant" and "comfortable" are answering different questions.
The rest of what a layout owes
The road table and the plot minimums sit alongside the two obligations covered separately in this series. Regulation 3.4.1 requires 10 percent recreational open space on any layout of 0.4 ha or more. Regulation 3.5 requires 5 percent amenity space at 20,000 sq m and above.
And Chapter 3, Regulation 3.2, Means of Access is the precondition to all of it: every plot shall have means of access, and where a plot does not abut a public street it must have a hard surface approach of at least 6.0 m for up to 75 m of length, or 9.0 m for up to 150 m, in non-congested areas, and not less than 4.5 m in congested areas.
What to check
- Measure the internal roads by length first, because that decides the width band.
- Look for a long spine road on any layout being marketed on plot efficiency, since it is expensive in land.
- Confirm whether EWS plots are being used to justify narrower roads, and that they abut both sides as the note requires.
- Check plot widths against Table 6-D, since the 30 sq m minimum area is only half the test.
- Read the commencement letter for the road handover clause, because the land may be called in without compensation.
Where the filings come in
The register records the filed land area on essentially every project, which is the figure the layout obligations are keyed to, along with the buildings and their floor counts.
What it does not record is the layout geometry, so road widths and plot sizes are answered by the sanctioned layout plan, which Regulation 2.6.4 requires the Authority to publish on its website until a month after the last occupancy certificate.
Every MahaRERA filing at reragenie.com is free to read and carries the filed land area, the promoter's extension history with the reasons given, the certifying professionals, and any complaints or litigation with case numbers.
ReraGenie's project analysis, Rs 2,999 for one project, reads the full filing and the documents behind it, and the area consolidated report covers a whole micro-market at Rs 2,999 for the first project and Rs 1,999 per additional one.
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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