What the bye-laws let you build on a plot, in a report before you buy it
TL;DR Drawright reads a plot's size, shape, road width and zone against the local building bye-laws, and then reports what can be built there - floor area, coverage, setbacks, height and parking. Small builders, brokers and plot buyers pay per report. Far too many people still learn these limits only after they've bought.
Every Indian authority writes its own development rules. Patna, for example, notified its control regulations as part of its master plan, alongside the state's own building bye-laws[1]. Floor area ratio, setbacks and height limits change with road width, plot size and zone, and amendments arrive often.
Authorities have moved scrutiny online. Himachal Pradesh switched six urban bodies to automated plan checks in March 2024[2]. Those systems measure setbacks and floor area from the drawing and return a pass or fail[3]. But the check happens after the plot is bought and the design is drawn. So a buyer who misread the rules has already paid for land that holds fewer floors than they planned. How often does this happen? I couldn't find a public figure.
The seed pitched AI compliance checks to cut zoning delays. That already exists, and the leading plan-scrutiny vendor sells a pre-submission checker to architects as well as the approval system to authorities[4]. Competing there means fighting the firm that supplies the regulators. So I moved one step earlier.
A user enters a plot by drawing its boundary on a map or uploading a survey sketch, then confirms road width and land use. Drawright applies that authority's bye-laws and returns a two-page report covering maximum built-up area, ground coverage, required setbacks on each side, height and floor limits, parking and any extras like purchasable floor area or transferable development rights. A simple massing sketch shows the envelope. Every figure cites the clause it came from, and unclear cases get marked for an architect to confirm.
Rules are coded city by city, starting with two or three fast-growing ones, and an in-house planner checks every amendment.
Plot buyers and small builders use the report before signing, and brokers buy it to answer the first question every buyer asks. Small architecture firms are a second buyer, since it saves them a day of rule-reading on each enquiry. Banks lending against plots are a possible third. There's no public Indian price for reports like this, so test ₹1,000–5,000 per report plus a monthly plan for brokers and architects.
States keep moving building permission online with coded rules, and Himachal did so in 2024[2]. That means bye-laws are more and more often written in forms a machine can apply, and automated checks have trained architects to expect fast, rule-based answers[3]. Abroad, plan-check tools have become a product category that cities buy[5].
There's no public figure for pre-purchase buildability reports in India. Adjacent - one Australian plan-check firm says more than 30 cities and local governments use its review tool[5], and a US startup built a business around searchable building codes in the US[6]. In India the evidence is the volume of plot sales and building applications, which you'll need to estimate city by city.
An Indian plan-check vendor checks finished drawings before submission, and its systems run approvals for many authorities[4]. The Australian firm offers feasibility and plan checks abroad[5]. The US code-search startup makes codes searchable but doesn't compute a plot's envelope[6]. Local architects answer the question by hand, often for free as a sales pitch. The gap is a fast, cited answer before any drawing exists.
| Difficulty | Moderate (41/100) |
| Starting capital | ₹50–90 L |
| Time to launch | 6–9 months |
The rules are the hard part, not the software. Each authority's bye-laws, amendments and special zones have to be coded and kept current, and some rules come down to how an official reads them. Plot data is messy too, since road widths and boundaries on paper rarely match what's on the ground.
No licence is needed to sell an informational report. The care goes into how you word it.
Building this outside India? The categories above usually have a local equivalent, so check with your own regulator.
Don't let AI decide the numbers. The limits come from coded rules checked by a planner, and unclear cases go to an architect, not a model.
Want to work out the AI layer for Drawright? Talk to Yash →
I'd back a founder with town-planning or architecture training who can code rules carefully and sell to brokers. If you're hoping one product will cover all of India quickly then it isn't for you. First prove that reports for one city match a practising architect's answer on 20 real plots, and that brokers will pay for them.
My estimate is ₹50–90 L, mostly for coding rules city by city and an in-house planner. The kit has the full breakdown.
No, as long as the report stays informational. Plans for submission still need a registered architect or licensed engineer, so say clearly that the report is not an approval.
Yes, and plan-check and code-search startups already do versions of this abroad. You'd code your own city's zoning rules, so start with one.
The free Drawright validation kit has the line-by-line capital breakdown, the effort scoring, the professional-liability and data checklist, a 14-day validation sprint with pass/fail targets, a 90-day launch plan, 10 interview questions for brokers, builders and architects, and 5 assumptions to test. Download the kit →
Thinking about building Drawright or something close to it? The make-or-break work is keeping coded bye-laws accurate and finding buyers who'll pay before they own the plot, and I'd be glad to help you test both. If you need a hand, you know where to find me. Talk to Yash →
For illustration only. Names are fictional and ideas hypothetical; sourced facts are real but may be out of date. Nothing here is legal, financial or professional advice, and Yash Khatri is not personally liable for any use of it. Read the full disclaimer.