House map approval in Karnataka

It depends on where the plot is. In Bengaluru you apply to the city corporation of the Greater Bengaluru Authority (Central, North, South, East or West) on its Nambike Nakshe portal, through a registered architect or engineer, and the site must already have an e-Khata. In other city corporations, municipal councils and town panchayats you apply on Nirman-2, the online system used by 312 urban local bodies. In a village the gram panchayat gives the building licence.

It is Bengaluru's trust-based online route for houses on sites of up to 50×80 ft (4,000 sq ft). A registered architect or engineer checks the site and documents and uploads the plan; software checks it against drain and lake buffers, the zoning rules and the bye-laws, and a provisional licence comes once the fee is paid, with the final licence due within 15 days. A pilot of Nambike Nakshe 2.0, launched on 19 September 2026 in selected areas, approves a plan that passes the checks automatically in about 30 minutes.

Not in Greater Bengaluru, if the site is up to 1,200 sq ft, the house is no more than ground + 2 floors or stilt + 3, and it was built to an approved plan (order of 9 September 2025). Otherwise you need one, and in Bengaluru the electricity and water boards may not give a permanent connection to a building without it. A September 2025 amendment lets the state exempt kinds of buildings in other cities too; law-firm reviews say matching notices were issued, but we could not find the official text, so ask your city body. A one-time 2026 relief for power connections closed in July 2026.

Yes. No one may build, extend or rebuild a house without the written permission of the gram panchayat, which you can seek at the panchayat or online on the Bapuji Seva Kendra portal. If the panchayat does not decide within 60 days, permission is treated as given. Panchayats must follow the Town and Country Planning Act when they issue licences, so in a village covered by a master plan the house must fit that plan too.

Under Bengaluru's bye-laws, an architect registered with the Council of Architecture or a registered civil engineer can sign the plans for any building. A registered supervisor with a diploma can sign for a building on a site of up to 200 sq m with up to two storeys or 7 m. For structural design, an architect may sign up to 500 sq m and three storeys or 10.5 m, an engineer up to 500 sq m and four storeys or 14 m, and a structural engineer anything larger. In other cities, architects and engineers register on Nirman-2.

In Bengaluru the Commissioner must decide within 30 days; after that you can ask the Commissioner in writing for an order within 15 more days, and if you then write to the Greater Bengaluru Authority's Chief Commissioner and no decision comes within a month, the plan is treated as approved. The sanction is valid for five years, and you need a plinth certificate, due within 15 days, before building above the plinth. In other city corporations a permission lapses if work does not start within two years, and in municipalities within one year.

In Bengaluru the corporation can order the work demolished or altered after notice and a hearing, seal the building, demolish it at your cost and file a criminal complaint. Ignoring a notice can bring a fine of up to 20% of the guidance value of the site and building, and breaking the Act up to a year in jail and a fine of up to ₹2 lakh. Banks may not lend for such a building. A house that keeps to the rules but was built without sanction can be approved later on a compounding fee.