Before a single pile goes into the ground in a RAJUK-controlled area, your project needs a sanctioned plan. Owners often treat this as paperwork to be handled later; in practice, approval requirements shape the design itself — setbacks, height, floor area ratio and parking are all decided long before aesthetics. Understanding the sequence early saves months.
Step One: Land Use Clearance
The process begins by confirming that what you intend to build is permitted on that land. This stage looks at the plot's designated use, its access road width and its position within the master plan. If the intended use and the designated use disagree, no amount of good design will fix it downstream — so this is the first thing to establish, ideally before purchase.
Step Two: Design Within the Rules
The architectural and structural design must satisfy the Bangladesh National Building Code and the applicable RAJUK rules: mandatory open space, front and side setbacks driven by road width, maximum ground coverage, floor area ratio, parking provision, staircase and lift requirements, and fire safety access. Designing first and checking compliance afterwards is the single most common cause of redrawn schemes.
Step Three: Assemble the Document Set
- Ownership documents — deed, mutation, up-to-date rent receipt and CS/RS/mouza records.
- Survey report establishing the plot boundary and area.
- Soil investigation report from a recognised laboratory.
- Architectural drawings — site plan, floor plans, sections and elevations.
- Structural drawings with design calculations, signed by the engineer of record.
- Electrical, plumbing and fire safety layouts as required for the building category.
Step Four: Submission, Review and Sanction
The set is submitted through the authority's process, reviewed by its technical officers, and either queried or sanctioned. Queries are normal; what matters is the turnaround. A consultant who answers a query in days with a corrected drawing keeps the project moving, while a set that has to be substantially redrawn restarts the clock.
Where Projects Actually Lose Time
In our experience the recurring causes are the same: incomplete or mismatched ownership records, a soil report commissioned too late, drawings that quietly breach setback or coverage limits, and structural calculations that do not match the architectural set. None are difficult to avoid — they simply require the design and documentation to be prepared together rather than in sequence.
Build & Care coordinates survey, soil investigation and structural design as one package so approval submissions are complete the first time. See our survey, soil test and structural design consultancy, or speak to our engineers about your plot in Dhaka.