With the objective of finding out areas of economies in construction costs, the planning Commission set up a Panel of experts in 1965 to study in depth the whole gamut of construction activities. The outlay on construction works and particularly on building forms a very large portion of the national investment.One of the facets of building construction,namely,controlling and regulating buildings through municipal bye-laws and departmental handbooks received the attention of the Panel and study of these regulatory practices revealed that some of the prevailing methods of construction were outmoded;some designs were overburdened with safety factors and there were other design criteria which,in the light of newer techniques and methodologies,could be rationalized;and building bye-laws and regulations of municipal bodies which largely regulate the building activity in the country wherever they exist, were outdated.They did not cater to the use of new building materials and the latest developments in building design and construction techniques.It also became clear that these codes and bye-laws lacked uniformity and they were more often than not 'specification oriented 'and not 'performance oriented' thereby hindering the use of modern techniques and also restricting the creative faculties of architects, engineers and structural engineers.

The studies of the Panel led to the conclusion that a unified building code at the national level should be formulated refelecting the latest trends in building construction activity.At the suggention of the Planning Commission,this task was taken up by the then Indian standards Institution(now Bureu of Indian Standards ) and its Guiding Committee finalized the code to serve as guide to all governmental and private agencies controlling building activities.In preparing the code expertise was drawn upon from all over the country--the central and state governments,local bodies, professional institutions and private agencies.
Since the pulication in 1970 version , of the National Building Code of India, a large number of comments and useful suggetions for modifications and additions to diffirent parts and sections of the code were received as a result of use of the code by all concerned,and revision work of building bye-laws of same State based on the Code.based on these and in view of revision of existing Indian Standards and formulation of new Indian Standards in the field of building activity,the National Building Code of India,1970 was revised in 1983.

Since the publication of 1983 version of National Building Code of India the Construction industry has gone through major technological advancement. In the last two decades,sustantial expertise has been gained in the areas.of building planning. designing and construction.Also lot of development have taken places in the techno-legal regime and techno-financial regime,apart from the enormous experience gained in dealing with natural calamities like super cyclones and earthquakess faced by the country.Further,since the last revision in 1983 based on the changes effected in the steel code,masonry code and loading as also in order to update the fire protection requirements ,three amendments were brought out to the 1983 version of the Code.Considering these,it was decided to take up a comprehensive revision of the National Building Code of India.All these have led to the second revision of all National Building Code.

The Code now published is the third version representing the present state of knowledge on various asprcts of building construction.The process of preparation of the Code has thrown up a number of problems;some of them were answered fully and some partially. Therefore, a continuous programme will go on by which additional knowledge that is gained through technological evolution, users'views over a period of time pinpointing areas of clarifications and coverage and results of research in the field, would be incorporated in to the Code from time to time make it a living document.It is therefore,proposed to bring out changes to the Code Periodically.working