Rethinking Bus Routes for Kochi
Rethinking Bus Routes for Kochi’s Changing Mobility Needs
October 8, 2026
Kochi road maintenance
Improving Kochi’s Roads Through Scientific Design and Accountability: D Dhanuraj
October 9, 2026
0

Fire Regulations and Urban Housing – A Comparative Analysis

Anu Maria Francis and D Dhanuraj at
Categories
Tags
Fire Regulations and Urban Housing

India faces a shortage of about 9.4 million affordable homes in its cities, and building upwards is one of the few ways to close that gap on scarce urban land. Fire-safety rules are essential to protect residents, but they also influence building height, the number of homes a plot can hold and the cost of each home. This paper compares fire-safety regulation for residential buildings in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, drawing on international practice in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan.

The paper finds that the height at which the full high-rise fire regime applies varies sharply across the three states: 15 m in Kerala, 18.3 m in Tamil Nadu and 24 m in Andhra Pradesh. Crossing this threshold adds large fixed costs, so developers in Kerala routinely stop just below 15 m. Plots go underused and cities spread outward. The rules also focus on what a building must install at the time of approval rather than whether those systems still work years later. They act, in part, as a substitute for limited fire-service capacity: Kerala’s firefighters waited nearly a decade for aerial ladder platforms.

The paper recommends raising the high-rise threshold in line with the new National Building Construction Standards 2026, linked to proven fire-service capacity. It calls for a hybrid regulatory approach that allows engineered alternatives alongside prescriptive rules, third-party certification, and regulatory impact assessment of fire norms. It also calls for stronger checks after buildings are occupied, amendments to the Kerala Fire Force Act, 1962, and sustained investment in modern firefighting equipment. Reform, the paper argues, is not deregulation but a way to make fire safety both more effective and more affordable.

Click Here to View the Paper

Anu Maria Francis is an Assistant Manager (Research and Project Management); Dr D Dhanuraj is the Founder-Chairman at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), Kochi, Kerala, India.

Views expressed by the authors are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.

Assistant Manager (Research and Project Management) at  | + posts

Anu Maria Francis is the Assistant Manager (Research and Project Management) at the Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), Kochi. She is a policy analyst focusing on regulatory and governance reforms, economic freedom, urban development, and gender policy. She holds a BA LL.B. degree from the National University of Advanced Legal Studies, Kochi, and was part of the 2024 cohort of the US Department of State’s Professional Fellows Program.

Chairman at Centre for Public Policy Research | + posts

Dr Dhanuraj is the Chairman of CPPR. His core areas of expertise are in international relations, urbanisation, urban transport & infrastructure, education, health, livelihood, law, and election analysis. He can be contacted by email at [email protected] or on Twitter @dhanuraj.

Anu Maria Francis and D Dhanuraj
Anu Maria Francis and D Dhanuraj
and

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *