Factory Licence in Gujarat: DISH Process, Plan Approval and Stability Certificate

A new factory in Gujarat now goes through four steps under the Gujarat Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Rules, 2025: registration of the establishment, approval of the factory plans, a stability certificate, and the factory licence. Plan approval is due within 30 days, the stability certificate is renewed every five years, and a licence can be renewed for up to ten years.

Which rules govern a Gujarat factory today?

The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 came into force on 21 November 2025, when the Government of India made the four labour codes effective. Gujarat notified its rules under the Code on 6 June 2025, and the Gazette of 12 June 2025 shows them made in supersession of the Gujarat Factories Rules, 1963. The rules say they come into force when the Code does. Rule numbers below are from that Gazette text. Whether a workplace is a factory at all is decided by the Code: premises with 20 or more workers where a manufacturing process runs with power, or 40 or more without power, subject to any different State threshold in force before the Code, which prevails until the legislature amends it. Section 143 of the Code repeals the Factories Act, 1948.

The picture on the Directorate of Industrial Safety and Health (DISH) site is mixed, and you should know why before you file. Its page of Acts and Rules still lists the Factories Act, 1948 and the 1963 rules, and its forms page still carries Form 2 and Form 3 from the old rules. The same site's notifications list also carries the 2025 OSH Rules, the Code, a central notification G.S.R. 345(E) of 8 May 2026, and a fee revision notification dated 13 October 2026, posted in Gujarati. Form 31, for permission to construct, is cited on the forms page under rule 69(2)(a), which matches the 2025 rules. We read the 2025 rules as governing. Ask DISH which forms and fee schedule it is accepting on the day you file.

What are the steps, in order?

What does plan approval ask for?

Rule 69 bars constructing, reconstructing, extending or taking into use a building as a factory without the previous written permission of the Chief Inspector-cum-Facilitator of Factories. The electronic application carries Form 31 and these enclosures:

• A process flow diagram with a brief description, naming raw materials, intermediates and finished products with inventories, and chemical names and storage quantities for chemical substances.
• Plans in duplicate drawn to scale: the site and its surroundings including adjacent buildings, roads and drains, and detailed plans, elevations and sections of the buildings, showing natural lighting, ventilation and means of escape in an emergency.
• The layout of plant and machinery, aisles and passageways, latrines, urinals and other sanitary provisions.
• The maximum number of workers in each workroom, with the area of ventilating openings and the cubic space per worker.
• Other particulars required by the Code and rules for the proposed factory, and any further particulars the Director of Industrial Safety and Health asks for.

These drawings are what the Chief Inspector reads, so the ventilation openings, the exits and the plant layout should match the design that will be built. If the Chief Inspector refuses permission, the applicant may appeal to the State Government within 30 days. Rule 72 allows approval to be revoked if it was obtained by misrepresentation or the construction departs from it. Our note on what DISH factory plan approval is gives the background, and the factory licence and DISH approval guide covers the process in the northern states.

Who gives the stability certificate?

Rule 70 says no manufacturing process may be carried out in a newly built, altered or extended factory premises, or after an increase in machinery or a change in process, until a certificate of stability in Form 32 has been submitted. It is signed by a competent person and accompanied by tests, load calculations and analysis reports. A fresh certificate is needed once in each five years and after any extension, alteration, repair or addition of plant. Treat it as a structural engineer's deliverable. Added machinery or plant can bring a new certificate, so tell the structural engineer when MEP loads change, for example for rooftop plant or heavy equipment on a mezzanine.

What about fees, renewal and changes?

The licence fee in the Schedule to rule 75 rises with installed horsepower and with the number of workers, across bands from "without power" to above 5,000 horsepower, and up to above 5,000 workers. Rule 77 lets the occupier apply to renew for up to ten consecutive years by paying ten times the annual fee, and an application received late attracts an additional 25 percent. Rule 79 treats a factory as duly licensed while a properly made application for grant or renewal is pending, and "properly made" means the right form, all particulars and the fee receipt. Rule 76 requires the licence to be amended within 30 days if the factory name changes or the horsepower or worker limits are exceeded in a way that raises the fee. Rule 81 lets an occupier who will not use the premises in the next year notify the Chief Inspector before 31 October, and the licence may be suspended or cancelled.

Two details need checking with DISH. The rule text says a renewal application is sent by registered post, while the same rules describe electronic filing for the other steps, so ask whether the portal is accepted. And the sentence on the expiry date of a licence is not clear in the Gazette text we read, so confirm the expiry that is printed on your licence. The 13 October 2026 notification on fees is in Gujarati, and we could not read the new schedule, so treat the fee bands above as the 2025 position.

How Secured Engineers helps

For Gujarat this is a buyer's guide. Design is in-house, so the ventilation, exits, plant layout and electrical load that DISH reads on the plan come from one coordinated set of drawings. Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering filings are done in-house. MEPF and solar can sit under one contract. We work from our Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana offices, across 535+ projects in 18+ states, and 89.77% of our clients return. We do not issue stability certificates, which belong to a competent structural person, but we supply the MEP loads they need.

If you are preparing a DISH file, send the layout, the process flow and the worker and horsepower numbers, and we will check the drawings for ventilation, exits and plant layout before they are filed. Start from the factory licence guide, message us on WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.