What is a Refuge Area and their Norms for High Rise Building?
Refuge areas as the name suggests an area clearly demarked in any commercial or residential building where people can take shelter in case of an emergency. High-rise residential buildings fail to fight emergencies related to fire with a number of cases in the recent past. Not only do the fire fighting personal have a hard time reaching the central location of the fire in case in happens on a high floor, it also puts lives of residents especially children and elderly at grave risk.
As per the building and construction norms, every high rise building must have a clear demarked area known as refuge areas. Builders and developers in the past have been found guilty of demarking a large chunk of area under refuge areas to get clearance and later selling them to various residents for their personal use. With an increase in the number of cases of misuse of refuge areas, the government has now redrafted the basic guidelines for refuge areas in accordance with the respective civic bodies.
Refuge Area Bylaws
The new guidelines for refuge area make it mandatory for builders to provide a dedicated refuge area at every 7th floor after the first 24 meters of the high rise building. In case the height of the building is more than 30 meters, the first refuge area must be located at 24 meter mark or at the 1st habitable floor which is higher. After the first refuge area, every 7th subsequent floor must have the same refuge area in the building.
Calculation of floor area falling under the refuge area
To avoid builders from demarking large chunks of areas as refuge areas and later sell them at lucrative prices to various residents, the government has come up with clear guidelines on the calculation of floor area falling under the refuge area. As per the new rules, refuge area must be restricted to a maximum of 4% of the habitable floor area it serves. The calculation of the refuge area will be free of floor space index or FSI. If however the refuge area exceeds the limit of 4%, the refuge area will be calculated under FSI which is the ratio of permissible built up area compared to the total size of the plot.
Provision for an alternate refuge area
For buildings having a height of more than 70 meters or 24 floors, the law has introduced a provision for an alternate refuge area. The alternate refuge area can be provided as reinforced cement concrete cantilever projections at the alternate mid-landing level of staircase. The minimum width for such alternate refuge areas has been fixed at 3 meters and minimum area to be covered is limited at 10 square meters for residential buildings and 15 square meters for commercial ones.
Another rule that has been introduced by the government requires builders to clearly demark and have a door with a sign mentioning refuge area. The sign must be painted in luminous paint. Any lifts or staircases must not open in the refuge areas and the area should be reserved for occupants as temporary shelter in case of an emergency.
