Building Regulations for North Eastern Region of India

The age of urbanization has ushered in better connectivity and accessibility, opening up the North-Eastern Region to the rest of the world like never before. Consequently, the region has experienced an unprecedented population growth, urban development and an increase in tourist influx. This rapid urbanization has also brought with it several issues like poor living conditions, increased vulnerability to hazards and environmental degradation, which highlights the poor state of building regulations in these regions. Building regulations, while enforced to regulate the ever-increasing demand for development in hill towns, are yet to achieve any substantial impact on elevating the issues faced in the North Eastern cities, which calls into question the appropriateness of these regulations given the current context. This paper attempts to study the type of development occurring in the North Eastern Region and the issues faced to accommodate the growing population. It also presents an in-depth study of the state of existing building regulations in major hill towns of the region, and briefly discusses the possible strategies to revise the existing building regulations for achieving contextually appropriate development.