The National Buildings Organisation (NBO), a central government entity that works under the Housing Ministry, was established in 1954 for technology transfer, experimentation, development and dissemination of housing statistics.
According to the NBO, its vision is: ‘To emerge as a knowledge centre of excellence at the national level, for matters related to collection, collation, compilation, reporting and analysis of urban poverty slums, housing, construction and other urbanisation-related statistics’.
Amid an increase in demand for housing, the NBO was restructured in 1992, to enable the government create more people-centric policies in the sector. The organisation was further restructured in 2006 with a revised mandate, in view of the requirements under the National Housing Policy and numerous socio-economic and statistical functions. The statistics from the NBO are used in policy formulations and also used by the various research organisations in the field of housing.
See also: All you need to know about Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO)
Key responsibilities of the NBO
The NBO’s primary activities include the collection, collation, analysis and dissemination of statistics pertaining to housing and buildings construction, with the aim to have an effective countrywide system for this purpose.
The key responsibilities of the NBO broadly include:
- To act as a national repository and resource centre on urban poverty, slums, building and housing construction and related statistics that is networked with similar resource centres at the state-level, urban local body-level and international-level.
- To collect, collate, validate, analyse and disseminate data on housing, building construction and other related statistical reports.
- To bring out statistical compilations on urban poverty, slums, housing and building construction, as well as applied research publications that analyse statistical data gathered from the census, NSSO, etc.
- To create and manage a fully computerised data centre, equipped with appropriate systems and e-governance tools, to store, manage, retrieve and disseminate urban data for policies and programmes.
- To conduct periodic short-term sample survey/field studies in various pockets across the country that study the impact of the Housing Ministry’s schemes.
- To undertake socio-economic research pertaining to the design, implementation, monitoring, review and impact of plans, policies, programmes and projects that cover slum development/upgradation, affordable housing and provision of basic services to the urban poor.
- To develop a documentation centre for statistics related to urban poverty, slums, building and housing construction and related areas that can function as a repository of best practices and innovations.
- To organise capacity building/training programmes for state government and urban local bodies’ officers and staff, who are engaged in the collection/dissemination of data on building construction and housing-related activities.
- To coordinate/collaborate with states/municipal authorities/research and training institutions and act as the nodal agency catering to data and MIS needs of urban policymakers, planners and researchers in the areas of housing, urban poverty, slums, etc.
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NBO data collection
The NBO collects data on a quarterly basis from 300 cities, with a population of one lakh and above, as per Census 2011. The primary data on building construction and housing-related activities from urban areas, are collected by the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, using the formats prescribed by the NBO. The building-related statistics mainly relate to:
- Data on building permits issued to residential buildings.
- Information on the total number of completion certificates issued.
- Compilation of data to develop the BCCI (Building Construction Cost Index).
- Compilation of data on building materials’ prices.
- Wages of building construction labour.
- Per sq ft circle rate of urban residential housing properties.
FAQs
What is the contact information of the NBO?
NBO can be contacted on: Office of Director General & Head of Department, National Buildings Organisation (NBO) G Wing, NBO Building, Nirman Bhawan Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs Government of India New Delhi-110011 +91-11-23061692 +91-11-23061683 www.nbo.gov.in
Under which ministry does the NBO come?
The NBO comes under the central Housing Ministry.