National Building Codes of Nepal

For the Design and Building Construction, Engineers follow the National building code from Nepal as well as Indian Codes. Nepal National Building code has 23 parts. The first part NBC 000 is "Requirements for State of the art Design: An introduction," which lays out a general provision of individual building codes.

The following is the complete list of codes on NBC.

• NBC000 state of the art design. [ Download ]
• NBC101 Material specifications. [ Download ]
• NBC102 Unit weight of materials. [ Download ]
• NBC103 Occupancy Load. [ Download ]
• NBC104 Wind load. [ Download ]
• NBC105 Seismic design of buildings. [ Download ]
• NBC105:2025 Seismic design of building.  [Download]
• NBC106 Snow load. [ Download ]
• NBC107 Fire safety. [ Download ]
• NBC108 SITE CONSIDERATION FOR SEISMIC HAZARDS. [ Download ]
• NBC109 (Unreinforced Masonry). [ Download ]
• NBC110 PLAIN AND REINFORCED CONCRETE. [ Download ]
• NBC111 STEEL. [ Download ]
• NBC112 TIMBER. [ Download ]
• NBC113 ALUMINIUM. [ Download ]
• NBC114 CONSTRUCTION SAFETY. [ Download ]
• NBC201 ( REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDINGS WITH MASONRY INFILL). [ Download ]
• NBC202 MANDATORY RULES OF THUMB LOAD BEARING MASANORY. [ Download ]
• NBC203 GUIDELINES FOR EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT BUILDING CONSTRUCTION, LOW STRENGTH MASONRY. [ Download ]
• NBC204  EARTHEN BUILDING. [ Download ]
• NBC205 MANDATORY RULES OF THUMB REINFORCED CONCRETE BUILDING WITHOUT MASONRY INFILL. [ Download ]
• NBC206 (ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS). [ Download ]
• NBC207 ELECTRICAL DESIGN REQUIREMENTS. [ Download ]
• NBC208 SANITARY AND PLUMBING DESIGN. [ Download ]

NBC 000 categorizes the design and construction of buildings into four types according to their level of sophistication.

• International state of art {Applicable codes: NBC000}
• Professionally engineered structures {Applicable codes NBC101-NBC114, NBC206, NBC207, NBC208}: -Building design and constructed under the supervision of engineers, Building with plinth area more than 1000sq.ft..., building having more than 3 stories, building with span more than 4.5m and building with irregular shapes.

• The building of restricted size designed to simple rules of Thumb. { Applicable codes: NBC201, NBC202, NBC205:- Building of plinth area less than 1000 sq.ft..., less than 3 stories, building having span less than 4.5m and regular building design and constructed by the technicians in the areas where professional engineers' service is not available.
• Remote rural Building where control in impractical {low strength masonry/ Earthen Building}:- Building constructed by local masons in remote areas and more than 2 stories.

The major thrust of the code is aimed at the typical and most common building currently being constructed in Nepal. It does not suggest as being practical for everyday consideration the sophisticated design philosophies and analytical techniques that appear in the building codes of developed countries. Under the first category International state of the Art, if consultants ensure that their designs meet the corresponding international standard, the designs are considered to be in conformity with NBC. The second level refers to the professionally engineered structures and covers all usual structures such as hospitals, meeting halls, factories, warehouses, multistorey buildings, and residential buildings.

The third categories refer to the Building of restricted size design with simple Rules of Thumb and mostly applies to remote areas where simpler buildings are prominent. The explanatory documents are such that an experienced overseer will be able to understand them and present sufficient details at the time of permit application to prove to the skilled appraiser at the Local Authority that the requirement has been met. The requirements are in the term of limits on spans and heights, minimum reinforcing and member sizes, positioning of earthquake resisting elements, and other such rules.

The fourth category is The Guidelines for remote rural buildings. These guidelines address about a dozen typical building styles that have been condensed from an inventory of approximately 55 building types served in 1993. In the form of diagrams and descriptions aimed at technical advisors, house owners, and lay-men, these guidelines emphasize those changes that should be made to current practices to improve the seismic resistance of these buildings not subject to modern quantitative analysis and rational design consideration. These structures are normally of earthen construction. Whereas these recommendations for such structures build in areas controlled by a building permit-issuing local authority.