Rajakaluve Buffer Zones in Bangalore: How to Check a Plot Before Buying

A rajakaluve is one of the storm water drains that carry rain from one Bangalore lake to the next. Land beside these drains carries a no-build strip called a buffer, and a plot inside that strip can face notices, demolition and a refused home loan. This guide explains the buffer widths in force in October 2026, the records that show where a drain runs, and the order of checks before paying an advance.

Why a Drain Matters to a Buyer

Bangalore has more than 800 km of rajakaluves. As the city grew, many of them were narrowed, covered with slabs or built over, so a drain is often invisible from the road. Its alignment still survives in the village survey maps and in the city's drain maps, and that record is what the authorities act on.

After the floods of 2022, the city corporation listed buildings on drain land and began removing them. A sale deed and a clean chain of title say who owns a plot. They are silent on whether a drain crosses it, which is why this check is done separately from the title search.

Buffer Widths in Force in October 2026

The Urban Development Department issued a final notification dated 15 October 2025 that changed the drain buffers in the zoning regulations. It applies across the Bangalore Metropolitan Region, including the Greater Bengaluru Authority area and the other local planning areas. The buffers, measured on either side from the edge of the drain in the revenue records, now are:

• Primary drain: 15 metres
• Secondary drain: 10 metres
• Tertiary drain: 5 metres

These widths are well below the earlier figures of the Revised Master Plan 2015, which ran up to 50 metres for a primary drain. The National Green Tribunal had ordered even wider buffers in 2016, and the Supreme Court set that order aside in March 2019. Many older articles, brokers and even sanctioned plans still quote the earlier numbers.

Two cautions follow from this history. A building approved under the old rule kept the wider strip, so its site plan may show more open land along the drain than a new project would. The reduced buffers have also drawn objections from citizen groups, and the rule may be tested again. A buyer is safer treating the wider strip as the comfortable distance and the notified width as the legal minimum.

Drain Land and Buffer Land Are Different

The drain itself is government land, recorded as kharab in the village survey records. Nobody can own, sell or build on it, whatever a private document says. A structure on the drain bed is an encroachment and can be removed without compensation.

The buffer is usually private land beside the drain. The owner keeps the title, but the strip must stay open, and it cannot hold a building. A plot that is partly in the buffer therefore has a smaller buildable area than its sale deed suggests, and the price should reflect that.

Records That Show Where the Drain Runs

The check starts from the survey number, because every drain record is tied to it. These are the records to compare with the plot:

• The village map and the survey sketch of the survey number, which mark drains and other kharab land
• The RTC, which records the kharab extent within the survey number
• The Revised Master Plan 2015 land use map, which marks primary, secondary and tertiary drains
• The storm water drain map kept by the city corporation's drain division
• The sanctioned layout or building plan, which should show the drain and the buffer left beside it
• The Dishaank app, which shows the survey number at the buyer's location on a satellite view

The maps held by different authorities have not always agreed on the path or the class of a drain. Where two records differ, a written clarification from the drain division of the city corporation settles which one applies. For a plot outside the corporation limits, the local planning authority or the tahsildar's office gives the same answer.

How the Check Is Done on the Ground

A licensed surveyor plots the drain from the survey records on to the site and measures the distance to the plot boundary. The work takes a day or two and costs little next to the price of the land. The surveyor's signed sketch, with the measured distance and the date, belongs in the buyer's file.

A site visit adds useful clues. Look for a line of slabs, a low strip of land, a culvert under the approach road, or a neighbouring compound wall that bends for no clear reason. A visit during or just after heavy rain shows where water actually flows.

What a Drain Problem Does to a Home Loan

Banks send their own valuer and lawyer to every property they finance. A plot on a drain or inside its buffer carries a risk of demolition, so lenders often refuse the loan or lend against a reduced value. A refusal on these grounds is a clear warning about the property, and it costs the buyer nothing.

It helps to ask a lender for an in-principle view early, before paying a large advance. A project already approved by several banks has passed this test more than once. A seller who insists on a full cash deal for land near a drain deserves closer questions.

Apartments Near a Drain

A flat buyer has the same question at project level. The sanctioned plan on the Karnataka RERA portal shows the site boundary, and the drain and its buffer should appear on it. Towers, basements and ramps should be clear of the strip, which is normally left as a road, a green belt or open ground.

An occupancy certificate is the strongest comfort for a completed project, since it is issued after the building is checked against the sanctioned plan. In an older building with no occupancy certificate, a surveyor's report on the drain is worth the fee. Our advisers help buyers in Bangalore ask developers for these documents on any project.

Order of Checks Before an Advance

These steps move from free checks to paid ones, so a problem plot drops out early:

1. Note the survey number, extent and boundaries from the seller's deed and khata.
2. Open the survey number in Dishaank and on the master plan map, and look for a drain or a lake nearby.
3. Read the RTC and the village map for kharab land inside or beside the survey number.
4. Visit the site, walk the boundary, and ask neighbours where water collects in the monsoon.
5. Ask the seller for the sanctioned plan and see how the drain and the buffer are marked.
6. Hire a licensed surveyor to measure the distance from the drain to the plot.
7. Seek a written clarification from the drain division when the plot is close to the limit.
8. Take a lender's legal and valuation view before the sale agreement.

Lakes carry their own buffers, which follow a separate rule from the drain buffers, so a plot near a lake needs that check as well. Flood history is a related but different question, since a plot can be outside every buffer and still collect water from a low road.