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Authorities Made Easy: Building Permission and Land Conversion in Pune (2026 Guide)
Which authority governs your Pune plot, how land conversion works after Maharashtra's 2025 reform, and the approvals people miss, with links to every official portal.
Published on 10/16/20269 min read
Before you rely on any of this: building regulations, fee schedules and portal addresses change often, sometimes several times a year. This guide was updated in October 2026 for Maharashtra's 2025 land revenue reform, which changed how agricultural land is converted. Everything below links to its source. Always confirm the current position on the official portal, or with an architect who has recently filed in your ward, before you spend money or sign anything. This is a plain-English guide, not legal advice.
Most people building in Pune lose more time to approvals than to construction. Not because the rules are unusually harsh, but because it is genuinely unclear who you are dealing with. Pune has three separate permitting authorities depending on where the plot sits, and they do not share a single window. Getting that one question right at the start saves months.
The good news for 2026: if your land is agricultural on paper, the separate NA permission from the Collector is gone for most plots. Your building permission now does that job. The details are in step two.
First question: which authority governs your plot?
This single answer determines the rulebook, the portal, the fees and the timeline. Get it wrong and you will file with the wrong office.
- Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC): plots inside PMC limits. Applications run through PMC's AutoDCR system, reached from the Building Development section of pmc.gov.in.
- Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC): a separate corporation with its own portal. If the plot is in Pimpri, Chinchwad, Akurdi or Nigdi, PMC is not your authority. See pcmcindia.gov.in.
- Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority (PMRDA): land in the metropolitan region outside both corporations, which covers most of the peri-urban belt where plots are still affordable. See PMRDA Development Permission.
If you are buying land and the seller cannot tell you which of these applies, treat that as a warning sign rather than a detail to resolve later. Our plot due diligence checklist covers the other checks to run before you pay.
The rulebook that applies in Pune
Pune is governed by the Unified Development Control and Promotion Regulations (UDCPR), sanctioned by the State Government on 2 December 2020. UDCPR applies to planning authorities and regional plan areas across Maharashtra with specific exceptions, most notably the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai, MIDC areas, NAINA and certain hill station councils.
This matters more than it sounds. Advice you read about FSI, setbacks or parking in Mumbai comes from a different document, DCPR 2034, and does not apply to a Pune plot. PMC hosts an updated copy of UDCPR at autodcr.pmc.gov.in, and the authoritative set of acts, rules and later amendments is maintained by the Directorate of Town Planning at dtp.maharashtra.gov.in. If you want to understand what setbacks, FSI and height limits mean before reading the rulebook, start with our explainer on setbacks, FAR and height limits.
Step one: read the land record before you pay anything
The 7/12 extract (satbara utara) is the single most important document in a Maharashtra land transaction. It shows ownership, survey number, area, crop history and whether the land is still classified as agricultural. View it free on the state land records portal, mahabhumi.gov.in: choose your region (Pune, Konkan, Nashik, Aurangabad, Amravati or Nagpur), then district, taluka, village and survey number. Viewing is free; certified copies carry a charge. The same portal provides the 8A extract, listing all land held under one account, and the property card for city survey areas.
Check three things before anything else:
- The other-rights column, which is where mortgages, charges and disputes appear.
- The land classification, agricultural or non-agricultural.
- The occupancy class. Class I land is freely transferable. Class II land carries restrictions and usually needs separate sanction and a premium (nazarana) before its use can change, and the 2025 reform does not change that.
Step two: land conversion, after the 2025 reform
Until recently, building a home on agricultural land in Maharashtra meant two separate tracks: a building permission from the planning authority and an NA (non-agricultural) permission, or a deemed-conversion sanad, from the Collector, followed by an annual NA tax.
The Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (Second Amendment) Act, 2025 replaced that system (bill text, PRS India). The reform was notified and then put into effect by a Government Resolution in February 2026 (Punekar News). In short:
- No Collector's permission is needed to change agricultural land to non-agricultural use, if that use is permitted by the draft or final Development Plan, the Regional Plan or the development control regulations.
- The planning authority's development permission or building plan approval (PMC, PCMC or PMRDA in Pune) is what effects the change, and the revenue records, including the 7/12, are updated afterwards.
- A one-time premium replaces the annual NA tax. The planning authority collects it before granting permission, at 0.1 per cent of the land's current market value (from the Annual Statement of Rates, the ready reckoner) for plots up to 1,000 sq m, 0.25 per cent from 1,000 to 4,000 sq m, and 0.5 per cent above that. As an illustration, a 139 sq m (1,500 sq ft) plot with a ready reckoner value of ₹40 lakh would pay about ₹4,000.
- Land already converted moves from the annual NA assessment to a one-time premium, calculated on the ready reckoner rates of 2001 or of the year of conversion.
- Class II land is not upgraded by a building permission. Those restrictions, and any nazarana due, still apply separately.
What has not changed: the use has to be permitted by the plan. If your survey number sits in an agricultural or green zone where housing is not allowed, a building permission will not be granted, and the reform does not help. That is why reading the zoning for your plot is now the real conversion check.
Revenue services that still apply, such as land record corrections, are filed through Aaple Sarkar. Government Resolutions, including the one implementing this reform, are published at gr.maharashtra.gov.in.
Step three: building permission
Maharashtra runs building approvals through the Building Plan Management System (BPMS), created to standardise permissions across municipal councils under the Ease of Doing Business programme. The state portal is mahavastu.maharashtra.gov.in, which publishes the official step-by-step documents: the Procedure for Building Permission and the Procedure for Full Occupancy Certificate. Inside PMC limits, plans are submitted through AutoDCR, which checks drawings against UDCPR automatically before a human scrutiny stage. PMC publishes a help manual for it.
In practice these portals are built for licensed professionals filing under their own credentials, and sanctioned drawings need a registered signatory. That is the practical reason to appoint an architect early rather than after the design is settled: the person who signs your drawings is the person who can file them. Since the 2025 reform, that same filing also carries your land conversion, which makes getting it right first time even more valuable.
Step four: the milestones people miss
Plinth or foundation checking happens once the plinth is complete. The authority verifies that what has been built matches the sanctioned plan: position on the plot, setbacks and footprint. Building above plinth level without this clearance is how small deviations become expensive, because the remedy later is demolition rather than a redraw.
The Occupancy Certificate is what makes the building legally fit to occupy. Under UDCPR 2020 the occupancy application bundles the occupancy information, property tax assessment forms and a document checklist. Without one you will typically struggle to obtain permanent water and electricity connections, complete a resale, or raise a loan against the property. Buyers' lawyers ask for it, so it is not paperwork you can defer indefinitely.
The sequence, in one place
- Confirm which authority governs the plot: PMC, PCMC or PMRDA.
- Pull the 7/12 extract on Mahabhumi and read the other-rights column, the land classification and the occupancy class.
- Check the zoning of the survey number in the Development Plan or Regional Plan. If housing is permitted, no separate NA permission is needed.
- Appoint an architect or licensed engineer. They hold the portal credentials.
- File for building permission through AutoDCR or BPMS against UDCPR 2020, and pay the one-time NA premium with it if the land is agricultural.
- Build to plinth, then obtain plinth checking before going higher.
- Complete construction and apply for the Occupancy Certificate.
If you are buying into a promoted project rather than building yourself, verify its registration on MahaRERA before paying anything. For a realistic budget once approvals are in hand, see our Pune construction cost breakdown.
Official portals for Pune
- Pune Municipal Corporation: building development and permissions
- PMRDA: development permission outside corporation limits
- PCMC: Pimpri-Chinchwad building permissions
- BPMS Maharashtra: official procedures for permission and occupancy
- Mahabhumi: 7/12, 8A and property card
- Directorate of Town Planning: acts, rules and UDCPR notifications
- Government Resolutions: including the February 2026 GR on NA reform
- Aaple Sarkar: revenue department services
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need NA permission to build a house in Pune?
Not a separate one, in most cases. Since the Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (Second Amendment) Act, 2025, if housing is permitted on your land by the Development Plan or Regional Plan, the building permission from PMC, PCMC or PMRDA effects the conversion, with a one-time premium paid at that stage.
Can I build on agricultural land in Pune if it is only a small house?
Only if the zoning permits residential use. The size of the house does not matter; the plan's land use does. If the survey number is in an agricultural or green zone where housing is not allowed, building permission will not be granted.
Is the annual NA tax still payable?
No. The reform replaced the annual NA assessment with a one-time premium, and reports of the February 2026 Government Resolution say pending annual NA tax dues up to that date were waived. Confirm the position for your survey number with the Tahsildar's office.
Do Mumbai's FSI rules apply in Pune?
No. Greater Mumbai is specifically excluded from UDCPR and runs on DCPR 2034; Pune follows UDCPR 2020. This is one of the most common sources of bad advice, because most published commentary on Maharashtra building rules is written about Mumbai.
Can I submit building plans myself?
Practically, no. AutoDCR and BPMS are built for licensed professionals filing under their own credentials, and sanctioned drawings need a registered signatory.
How long does the whole approval process take?
Building permission timelines vary by authority and by how clean the submission is. With conversion now folded into the permission, the main wait is the scrutiny of your plans. Allow a few months, longer if the file returns with queries. An architect who has recently filed in your specific ward is the only reliable estimate.
Approvals go considerably faster when the person handling them has filed in your ward before. You can browse architects practising in Pune on MOA, see their published work and message them directly, with no commission on either side.
Sources
- Maharashtra Land Revenue Code (Second Amendment) Bill, 2025, L.A. Bill No. XCVII of 2025, as published in the Maharashtra Government Gazette (PRS India copy) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Punekar News: Maharashtra ends separate NA permission for land conversion; annual NA tax abolished (12 Feb 2026) (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Directorate of Town Planning, Maharashtra: Acts and rules, including UDCPR (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Government of Maharashtra: Building Plan Management System procedures (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Mahabhumi: Maharashtra land records (accessed 16 Oct 2026)
- Pune authority portals listed above: PMC, PCMC, PMRDA, MahaRERA and Aaple Sarkar (accessed 16 Oct 2026)