Factory Licence in Karnataka: Factories Department Process, Plan Approval and Renewal

A Karnataka factory needs plan approval (Form 1) before construction or extension, then registration and a licence (Form 2), both filed online with the Department of Factories, Boilers, Industrial Safety and Health. Its service sheets state 60 working days for each, with the Joint Director as first appeal. The OSH Code now sits over the Factories Act, and Karnataka's rules under it are still in draft.

Which law applies to a Karnataka factory in 2026?

The department's website still describes its job as enforcing the Factories Act, 1948 and the Karnataka Factories Rules, 1969, and its service sheets for plan approval and licensing cite those. But the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 was brought into force by Ministry of Labour notification S.O. 5321(E) of 21 November 2025, and section 143 of the Code repeals the Factories Act. Section 143(3) keeps actions and rules under the repealed Act in force, as if made under the Code, to the extent they do not conflict with it.

Karnataka published its draft Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (Karnataka) Rules, 2026 on 23 January 2026, and the department's Labour Codes page still lists it as a draft. We did not find a final notification. So a Karnataka owner today works under the 1969 Rules as carried forward, on the department's online portal, while the draft shows where the process is heading. Where this guide cites the draft, it says so. Ask the jurisdictional office which forms and fees apply on the day you file.

Step 1: factory plan approval

The service sheet for plan approval says you apply online on the department's Suraksha portal, in Form 1, to the jurisdictional Assistant, Senior Assistant or Deputy Director of Factories. An inspector visits the site to verify the plan and documents. If the plan is found satisfactory it goes to the approving authority, who issues an e-signed approval letter that you download. If it is not, observations are sent back and you resubmit.

The documents listed on the service sheet are:

• a stability certificate in Form 1A, for existing factory buildings only;
• a brief description and flow chart of the manufacturing process;
• the land sale deed, lease deed, rental deed, possession certificate or a letter from the local body, as applicable;
• the factory plan in PDF;
• for factories with a hazardous process or storage and handling of hazardous materials, the consent letter of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and approval of the on-site emergency plan.

The sheet lists 60 working days and gives the internal split: 1 day to receive, 2 to register, 20 for the inspector's visit and document check, 17 for recommendation or revisions, and 20 for the approver. Each round of observations adds to those steps, so a complete first submission matters more than the stated period.

The stability certificate and who may sign it

A factory building needs a certificate of stability from a competent person recognised by the Chief Inspector. The department's notice on recognition says the person must hold a degree in civil or structural engineering with at least ten years of experience in design, construction, testing or repair of structures, and that recognition lasts one year at a time. Your structural consultant should confirm that the person signing is on the current recognised list before the certificate is commissioned, because a certificate from someone outside that list invites questions at inspection.

The 2026 draft rules would go further: no manufacturing process may start without the certificate, and a fresh one is needed every five years. Treat the five-year renewal as proposed, not yet binding, and note it in your maintenance calendar anyway.

Step 2: registration and the licence

The licence application is Form 2, filed online by the occupier. The documents depend on how the business is constituted, and the service sheet is specific:

The fee depends on the number of workers, the horse power installed and, for power-generating or transforming factories, the kilowatt capacity, under the fee charts in Rule 5 of the 1969 Rules. The department runs an online fee calculator on the portal; use it rather than a figure from a blog, since the 2026 draft proposes a new scale. The licence stage has the same 60-working-day period and the same appeal path: the Joint Director of Factories first, then the Director.

Renewal and the licence period

The department publishes an auto-renewal flow for the portal. You log in, choose Renewal of Factory Licence, select the number of years up to 15, pay online by district, and download the renewal certificate from your login. The 2026 draft would allow a licence for a period not exceeding fifteen years at a time and would treat an application as approved, with the licence auto-generated, if no order comes within the Sakala timeline or 30 days, whichever is less. That deemed-approval clause is draft text, so do not plan on it.

Commercial guides quote one, three and five years for the licence period. We could not reconcile those with the portal flow, which allows up to 15 years. Read the validity off your own certificate and diary the renewal. The portal also has a page for verifying approval certificates online.

How the licence fits with fire and pollution approvals

The factory file is read alongside the others. The pollution board consent is a precondition for hazardous processes, our Karnataka fire NOC guide covers the KSFES route, and the whole order of approvals is in the factory approvals roadmap. For electrical contractors, the Karnataka MEP hiring guide shows how KIADB, BESCOM, fire and CEIG steps line up for a plant.

The practical rule is that the flow chart, the machine layout, the exits and the fire scheme must describe one building. If the plan in Form 1 and the fire drawing disagree on an exit, expect observations from the inspector and another round on the file.

How Secured Engineers helps

Secured Engineers designs fire, electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems in-house, so the layouts that go into a factory plan are drawn by the engineers who will build them. Fire NOC, CEIG and DISCOM net-metering filings are handled in-house, and MEPF and solar can be placed under one contract. We work from offices in Noida (Delhi NCR) and Ludhiana, and for Karnataka we mobilise from those offices. The company has delivered 535+ projects across 18+ states, with 89.77% repeat clients.

If you have a Form 1 draft or a Form 2 file ready, we can review the drawings and document set before you submit. The northern-state version of this checklist is in our factory licence and DISH approval guide. Send the file by WhatsApp, call +91 70099 85817, or ask for a free proposal.