The margin rules decide how much of a plot cannot be built on. Regulation 6.7 decides what may sit there anyway, and it is longer than the rule it qualifies.
Key takeaways
- Regulation 6.7(a) states the principle: every open space, interior or exterior, shall be kept free from any erection and open to the sky.
- No cornice, chajja, roof or weather shade more than 0.75 m wide may overhang a marginal open space so as to reduce it below the minimum required.
- Twelve lettered items are then permitted in the margin anyway, from balconies and basement ramps to a 4.0 sq m toilet and a 6 sq m watchman's cabin.
- Permission to build in the margin is not permission to build it free. Regulation 6.8 excludes only eight of the twelve from FSI.
- On ReraGenie's registry copy captured 11 August 2026, only 2.1 percent of published projects file a basement as a parking location and 0.9 percent a podium.
The principle, stated once
Chapter 6, Regulation 6.7, UDCPR as updated 30 January 2025 opens with the rule everything after it bends:
Every open space provided either interior or exterior shall be kept free from any erection thereon and shall be open to the sky.
The same clause then sets the general limit on overhangs. No cornice, chajja, roof or weather shade more than 0.75 m wide shall overhang or project over a marginal open space so as to reduce its width below the minimum required. A sloping or horizontal chajja provided over a balcony or gallery may be permitted up to the balcony projection at horizontal level.
Everything that follows is an exception, and the code lists twelve of them.
The twelve, and what each one costs
The list is easy to read as a single permission. It is not: whether something may be placed in the margin and whether it is counted in FSI are two different questions, settled in two different regulations, and they do not give the same answer.
| Permitted in the margin under 6.7 | The limit the regulation sets | Counted in FSI? |
|---|---|---|
| (a) Cornice, chajja, roof or weather shade | Not more than 0.75 m wide, and not so as to reduce the margin below the minimum | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (b) Balconies | As specified in Regulation 9.14 | Counted. Regulation 6.6 puts the open balcony inside the P-line |
| (c) Ledge for an air conditioning unit | As specified in Regulation 9.5 | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (d) Canopy or porch over the entrances | Not exceeding 5 m by 2.5 m, cantilever and unenclosed, 2.4 m clear below the beam bottom, 1.5 m clear of the plot boundary, no access from upper floors | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (e) Roof top terrace projection | Maximum 30 cm throughout the periphery, or 45 cm for a pitched roof | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (f)(i) Single storeyed toilet, where an existing building has none | Maximum 4.0 sq m, in the rear or side open space, 7.5 m from the road line or front boundary and 1.5 m from other boundaries | Counted. 6.7(f)(ii) says so expressly |
| (f)(ii) Parking lock-up garage | Not exceeding 2.4 m in height, in the rear corner of an independent bungalow plot; 7.5 m from the road line and 2 hour fire resistance if attached to the main building | Counted. 6.7(f)(ii) says so expressly |
| (f)(iii) Tanks, soak pits, garbage chambers, fire hydrant space, fittings | As required | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (f)(iv) Watchman's cabin or booth | Not more than 6 sq m built-up area, minimum width or diameter 1.80 m, at every entrance and exit | Not in the 6.8 list |
| (g) Ramp for a basement, in side and rear margins | Subject to Regulation 9.12 | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (h) Fire escape staircase | Single flight not less than 1.2 m wide, excluding the marginal distance required for a special building | Not in the 6.8 list |
| (i) Staircase mid-landing | 1.2 m wide, 2.1 m clear headroom below, and clear of the plot boundary by 1.8 m for a non-special building or 6.0 m for a special building | Not in the 6.8 list |
| (j) Architectural projections | As specified in Regulation 9.30 | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (k) Steps, or steps with an otta | Up to 1.2 m from the building line. Ottas, railings, barricades and supporting columns are not permitted in the front margin at all | Excluded by 6.8 |
| (l) Cupboard | As specified in Regulation 9.6 | Counted. Regulation 6.6 puts the cupboard inside the P-line |
That last column is the one worth copying into a feasibility model. Chapter 6, Regulation 6.8, Exclusion of Structures / Projections for FSI Calculation* lists the projections it exempts by reference to specific letters of 6.7: (a), (c), (d), (e), (f)(iii), (g), (j) and (k). Balconies, the toilet, the lock-up garage, the watchman's cabin, the fire escape staircase, the staircase mid-landing and the cupboard are not on that list.
Two of those are confirmed twice over. Chapter 6, Regulation 6.6, Calculation of Built-up area for the Purposes of FSI puts the open balcony and the cupboard inside the P-line irrespective of use or function, and 6.7(f)(ii) states directly that the area of the sanitary block and the parking lock-up garage shall be taken into account for the calculation of FSI.
So a scheme can be perfectly compliant on margins and still be over on FSI, because it treated permission to place as permission to exclude.
The numbers most likely to be got wrong
The canopy has four limits, not one. Five metres by 2.5 m, cantilever and unenclosed, a minimum clear height of 2.4 m below the beam bottom, and 1.5 m clearance from the plot boundary. On top of those it must not have access from upper floors for use as a sitting out place, which is a use restriction rather than a dimension and is the one a design review is most likely to catch late. Special buildings may have more than one canopy as required.
The toilet is for a specific situation. 6.7(f)(i) permits it in an existing building where a toilet is not provided, at a maximum of 4.0 sq m, in the rear or side open space, 7.5 m from the road line or the front boundary and 1.5 m from other boundaries. The Authority may reduce that 1.5 m in exceptional cases to avoid hardship.
The basement ramp is governed elsewhere, and that elsewhere has moved. Row (g) permits the ramp in side and rear margins subject to Chapter 9, Regulation 9.12, Ramp*, which is where the slope is actually fixed: not steeper than 1 in 10 as the normal case, never steeper than 1 in 8 even where a steeper slope is permitted, and not more than 1 in 12 for public offices, hospitals and assembly halls. Handrails are required on both sides, the surface must be non-slipping, and a ramp in a hospital must be at least 2.25 m wide. That regulation carries an amendment marker: parts of it were inserted or substituted by Corrigendum and Addendum No.CR.79/2021 dated 2 December 2021. A margin drawing that clears 6.7(g) can still fail on 9.12, because the two regulations answer different questions and only one of them is about where the ramp sits.
The garage is for a bungalow. A parking lock-up garage not exceeding 2.4 m in height is permitted in the rear corner of an independent bungalow plot. Attached to the main building it must sit 7.5 m from the road line and be built to give two hours of fire resistance.
The front margin is nearly untouchable. Under 6.7(k), ottas, railings, barricades and supporting columns for a canopy or porch may not be constructed within the minimum required front marginal distance at all. Steps, or steps together with an otta, may project up to 1.2 m from the building line, and that is the whole allowance.
One line in the accessory buildings note solves a problem that comes up on nearly every corner site. When a building abuts three or more roads, the accessory uses in 6.7(f), except the watchman's cabin, are permissible in the front setback facing a smaller road of less importance from a traffic point of view.
That is a real concession, because Regulation 6.2.6 charges a plot a front setback on every street it touches, and a three road plot can otherwise find it has no rear or side margin left to put a tank or a garbage chamber in. The cabin is excepted for the obvious reason: it is allowed at every entrance and exit, so it has to be where the entrances are.
Where the parking actually sits, as filed
Chapter 6, Regulation 6.7 clause (g) lets a basement ramp occupy the side and rear margins, and Regulation 6.8(ii) excludes a stilt, podium or basement from FSI while it is used exclusively for parking. Both provisions turn on where a project puts its cars, so it is worth asking what the register says about that.
Source: ReraGenie analysis of the MahaRERA project registry, 43,761 of 46,654 published projects outside Mumbai filing parking detail rows, captured 11 August 2026
The categories are not exclusive: most projects file both an open space row and a closed or covered row, which is why the first two bars each cover about 88 percent of the register.
The structural locations are the interesting part, and they are rare. Only 2.1 percent of projects name a basement and 0.9 percent a podium. Sixty nine file a garage, which is the structure 6.7(f)(ii) permits in the rear corner of a bungalow plot.
Read that as a limit on the register rather than a description of Maharashtra's basements. The parking block records open against covered on nearly every project and names a specific structure on very few, so the filing usually cannot tell you whether a project's covered parking sits in a stilt, a podium or a basement.
That matters because it is exactly the distinction 6.8(ii) conditions its FSI exclusion on. The same conclusion the built-up area article reached applies here in a narrower form: the register records what was declared, not how the plans were drawn, and for this question it does not record enough to check.
What to check
- Start from 6.7(a), not from the list. The margin is required to be open to the sky, and each item below is a stated exception to that.
- Check the FSI column separately from the placement column, because Chapter 6, Regulation 6.8* exempts only eight of the twelve.
- Hold overhangs to 0.75 m unless they are a chajja over a balcony or gallery.
- On a three road plot, place the accessory structures early, using the note to 6.7(f) before the margins are committed elsewhere.
- Read the referenced Chapter 9 provisions in full for balconies, ledges, ramps, architectural projections and cupboards, then the built-up area rules for how each is measured.
Where the filings come in
The code says what may stand in the margin. The register says what the promoter declared and whether it arrived. ReraGenie's project analysis, Rs 2,999 for one project, reads a project's full MahaRERA filing: the filed land area and parking provision, 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, 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.
Evaluating a micro-market or a land parcel?
The ReraGenie project analysis reads every filing in your competitive set: supply, absorption, pricing and promoter records. Rs 2,999 per project, area consolidated reports from Rs 2,999.
See the project analysis