MEP Design & Statutory Approvals

What to have ready

• Architectural drawings — plans, sections and site plan
• Occupancy, use and any process or equipment loads
• Built-up area and building height
• Sanctions and approvals already held
• The state and local authority — which fire service, DISCOM and pollution board apply
• Design stage required: concept, design basis, tender or good-for-construction
• Whether execution will be in-house or by other contractors, which changes the deliverables

What drives the cost

• Built-up area and complexity of the building
• Number of disciplines and the deliverable level — concept, tender, GFC or BIM
• Number of approvals and authorities involved
• Number of revision cycles as the architecture changes
• Site visits and inspection attendance
• Statutory fees, which are paid to the authorities and sit outside the consultancy fee

What drives the timeline

• Authority processing times, which vary by state and by portal
• Completeness and stability of the architectural inputs
• Inspection scheduling and shortfall cycles
• Sequential dependencies — DISCOM sanction, then CEIG, then energisation

Approvals that usually apply

• Fire NOC — provisional and final
• CEIG drawing approval and inspection
• DISCOM load sanction and net-metering
• State pollution-board consent to establish and operate for STP/ETP, DG sets and boilers
• MEP inputs to the building-plan sanction and to Factories Act plan approval where the building is a factory
• Lift inspectorate where lifts are installed

Standards and codes we design to

• NBC 2016
• CEA Regulations
• State Fire rules
• Relevant IS / IEC codes

Maintenance after handover

For a design and approvals scope, 'maintenance' means keeping the approvals valid: Fire NOC renewal, periodic CEIG inspection, pollution-board consent renewal and factory-licence renewal, plus re-approval when the building's use or load changes.

See our AMC and maintenance scope →

Mistakes we see most often

• Starting construction before the scheme approvals
• Treating approvals as a formality at the end rather than a sequence that gates the programme
• Architectural changes not carried into the approved MEP scheme, so the inspection finds a variance
• Fire-tank capacity fixed before the fire scheme exists
• Sanctioned load applied for without a load list
• No owner-side record of what was submitted, approved and inspected