House map approval in Bihar

Only in a few towns: Patna on Automap, and Muzaffarpur on its Nagar Nigam's own portal. On Automap a registered technical person prepares the plan file, and you upload it with your documents and pay online; Automap says low-rise permits are decided in 7 working days. Muzaffarpur's portal covers its 49 wards, and Gaya's website lists online approval as coming soon. Elsewhere you file Form-II with the plans at the office.

You need no prior approval if the house is no more than ground + 2 floors and 10 m high, with no basement or stilt. You still file the application with a registered engineer's certificate that the design meets Bihar's earthquake-safety rules, and give the authority a Form-X notice with the plan and land records 60 days before work starts. Roads and drains must exist under an approved layout or be provided for in your plan, and every other bye-law still applies.

Yes, if the village lies in a notified planning area. Since February 2024 the villages of 30 planning areas, and before that Patna's, follow the bye-laws, and the map goes to the planning area authority's CEO instead of the mukhiya; Bihar had 43 planning area authorities by March 2023. For a village outside every planning area the bye-laws only allow for a separate guideline, which we did not find, so ask the gram panchayat or block office.

The owner and a technical person registered or empanelled with your municipal body or authority. That can be a Council of Architecture-registered architect, a civil engineer registered with the Institution of Engineers (India), or, for a house on a plot up to 100 sq m with up to two storeys, a supervisor with a diploma and five years' experience. An engineer may sign the structural design for plots up to 500 sq m and up to three storeys below 15 m; beyond that it needs a structural engineer.

It depends on the road in front of the plot. In older areas a 12 ft or 16 ft road allows ground + 2 floors up to 10 m, a 20 ft road ground + 3 or stilt + 3 up to 12 m, and a 30 ft road stilt + 5 up to 18 m. Anything 15 m or taller needs a plot of at least 800 sq m, and ground + 3 is not allowed on a plot 10 m or less deep or wide. No building is allowed on a road narrower than 12 ft, or under 20 ft in notified new areas.

Up to 60 days under the bye-laws. If the authority raises objections you get 30 days to fix them, and it then decides within another 30 days. Patna's Automap says low-rise permits are decided in 7 working days and medium and high-rise ones in 20. The permit lasts three years and can be renewed once for two more, and the occupancy certificate is due within 30 days of your completion notice.

Under the Bihar Municipal Act 2007 the municipal commissioner or executive officer can order the building demolished after hearing you, stop the work and seal it; Patna used its sealing power on a house under construction in February 2026. You can appeal to the Municipal Building Tribunal within 30 days. Work that breaks no bye-law can be regularised at ₹2,000 per sq m for a house, and small deviations (up to 10% of side and rear setbacks, 5% of floor area and height, at most 0.9 m) at ₹10,000 per sq m, but never extra floors, a smaller front setback, building over a road or drain, or on land you do not own.