Industrial Property Site-Visit Checklist for Bhiwadi Buyers

An industrial site visit has one job: confirm that the property’s real specifications match your process, your machines, and your logistics. The second job is to collect or photograph the papers that prove what the seller claims. Everything on this checklist serves those two goals; if a property fails either test, the price does not matter.

Shivam Properties has walked buyers through factory, shed, warehouse, and plot inspections across the Bhiwadi belt since 2008. This checklist compiles what we check on the ground in Bhiwadi’s RIICO industrial areas: Tapukara, Khushkhera, Chopanki, and Kahrani. Use it as a working document. Print it, carry a measuring tape and a phone with a full battery, and tick items as you go.

One caution before you start. A dealer’s on-site check, including ours, is preliminary. It filters properties and flags problems early. Title verification needs an independent lawyer. Structural soundness of an old shed or a heavy-load floor needs a structural engineer. Exact sanctioned figures for power, water, and approvals need written confirmation from the relevant authority for that specific property. Treat every number a seller quotes as a claim until you see it on paper.

If you have not yet decided between a plot, a shed, and a built factory, read factory vs warehouse vs industrial plot first. This checklist assumes you know your format and are now inspecting candidates.

Before You Reach the Gate

The visit starts on the drive in, not at the property. Note these on the approach:

• Distance and drive time from NH-48. Measure it yourself; do not rely on the listing. Time it at the hour your trucks would actually move.
• Condition of the last stretch of road. The highway may be excellent while the final kilometre inside the industrial area is broken. Broken internal roads damage material in transit and slow every dispatch.
• Waterlogging marks. Look for silt lines on compound walls, mud deposits at road edges, and raised plinths on neighbouring units. These tell you what the monsoon does here even in dry season.
• Streetlights and general upkeep of the industrial area. This hints at how active the local industries association and RIICO maintenance are.
• Signage and unit density. A lane full of operating factories is a different risk profile from a lane of locked gates.

Each RIICO area in the belt has its own character; Chopanki vs Khushkhera vs Tapukara covers the differences. Verify on the ground that the area matches what you expect from it.

1. 1

   On the approach

   Drive time from NH-48, the condition of the last stretch of road, waterlogging marks on walls and plinths, and how active the surrounding units look.

2. 2

   Access and logistics

   Approach road, the gate, and whether a loaded truck can actually turn and manoeuvre inside the compound.

3. 3

   Land and building

   Plot area, covered area, open yard and expansion room, and the boundary against the papers.

4. 4

   Structure

   Clear height, columns, floor loading and roof condition against what your process needs.

5. 5

   Power and utilities

   Sanctioned load, the connection, water source and effluent arrangements.

6. 6

   Compliance

   Approvals and consents on the built-up unit, and that the permitted land use matches your line.

7. 7

   Surroundings and neighbours

   What runs next door, and what that means for access, effluent, disputes and future use.

8. 8

   Documents

   Collect or photograph the papers on site before you leave, so verification can start the same day.

Access and Logistics

For most industrial buyers this section decides the deal. A property your vehicles cannot serve is not an industrial property for you, whatever else it offers.

Approach road

• Measure the width of the road fronting the plot. Do not estimate; use a tape or a measuring app and record the figure.
• Ask what vehicle sizes currently reach neighbouring units. If a 40-foot trailer or container serves the unit next door, that is direct evidence for your own logistics.
• Check for permanent obstructions: electric poles, transformers, trees, drains, or encroachments that narrow the usable width below the nominal width.
• Look at both ends of the lane. A wide road that dead-ends without a turning space forces trucks to reverse the full length. Ask drivers or neighbouring security guards how trucks currently manage.
• Note overhead lines crossing the approach. Low-hanging cables restrict high-body vehicles and container movement.

Gate and entry

• Measure the gate’s clear width and clear height. The structure above or beside a gate often reduces the opening below what the leaf size suggests.
• Check the turning geometry from road into gate. A wide gate on a narrow road can still be unusable if the truck cannot swing into it. If your operation depends on trailers, arrange a trial entry with an actual vehicle before you commit.
• Check the gate’s condition and whether a second gate exists. A separate personnel gate keeps worker movement away from vehicle movement.
• Note the level difference between road and gate. A steep ramp at the entry troubles loaded vehicles and low-bed trailers.

Inside the compound

• Is there space for a truck to enter, turn, and exit without reversing onto the public road? Walk the turning path yourself.
• Where would loading and unloading happen? Check for a dock, a level platform, or at least a hardstanding area that stays firm in rain.
• Can two vehicles stand inside at once, or does one truck block the compound? Match this against your expected dispatch frequency.
• Check parking for staff two-wheelers and visitor cars. If the compound cannot hold them, they spill onto the road and create friction with neighbours.

If your largest vehicle cannot comfortably enter, turn, load, and leave, stop evaluating the property and move to the next one.

Land and Building

Sellers quote areas loosely. Your job is to pin down three separate numbers and verify each.

Plot area

• Ask for the plot area as stated in the allotment letter or sale deed, and compare it with the site plan. For a RIICO plot, the allotment documents govern; our RIICO industrial plots buyers’ guide explains the paperwork chain.
• Physically measure the frontage and at least one depth. A tape and two people take ten minutes. Large discrepancies between paper and ground are a serious red flag.
• Confirm the plot’s shape against the site plan. Irregular or tapering plots reduce usable building area more than the total area suggests.

Built-up and covered area

• Distinguish plot area, built-up area, and covered (roofed) area. Sellers blur these; get each number separately and note which document supports which. Definitions are in the Bhiwadi property glossary.
• Ask for the sanctioned building plan and compare the structures on the ground against it. Unsanctioned additions create regularisation cost and risk that you inherit.
• Check ground coverage against what the authority permits for that plot. Excess coverage is a compliance issue at transfer time.

Open yard and expansion

• Walk the open area. Is it levelled, paved, or raw earth? What does it cost you to make it usable for storage or vehicle movement?
• Mark where you could expand: a second shed, a mezzanine, an added bay. Check that the remaining permissible coverage actually allows it; do not assume open ground equals expansion right.
• If your five-year plan needs more area than the plot holds, note whether adjoining plots are vacant and who holds them. Buying tight and hoping to expand next door is a gamble; price it as one.

Boundary

• Walk the full boundary. Check the compound wall’s condition, height, and whether it sits on the boundary shown in the site plan.
• Look for encroachment in both directions: neighbours’ structures, drains, or material inside your line, and your wall sitting on someone else’s land or on a road margin.
• Check corner stones or boundary markers if the plot is open land. On vacant plots, insist on a demarcation by a surveyor before registration, not after.
• Note any electric tower, public drain, pipeline, or right-of-way crossing the plot. These restrict where you can build and are rarely volunteered by sellers.

Structure

This section applies to built properties: factories, sheds, and warehouses. On a vacant plot, skip to power and utilities, but still inspect any old structure standing on it; demolition and debris removal cost real money.

Clear height

• Measure the clear height at the eaves and at the ridge, inside the shed, below the lowest obstruction. Trusses, ducting, lighting, and crane rails all eat into nominal height.
• Match the measured clear height against your tallest machine, your racking plan, or your crane hook height. A warehouse buyer planning racking needs the under-truss figure, not the ridge figure.
• If you plan an EOT crane or a mezzanine, have the structure assessed by a structural engineer for the added load. Do not accept the seller’s assurance that the columns will take it.

Floor

• Walk the entire floor. Look for cracks, settlement, patch repairs, oil saturation, and areas where the surface has powdered or eroded.
• Check floor levels with a straight edge or by rolling a trolley. Uneven floors trouble forklifts, racking, and precision machinery.
• Ask what the floor was designed to carry and what supporting documents exist. If your machines or racking impose heavy point loads, get a structural engineer to assess the slab; core tests are cheap against the cost of a failed floor under a running plant.
• Check the plinth height against the road and against neighbouring plots. A low plinth invites water in during heavy rain.
• Look under any raised flooring, in pits, and in trenches. Old machine foundations left in the slab can obstruct your own layout.

Shed and roof

• Inspect the roof sheeting from inside on a bright day. Points of daylight through the sheet mean holes; rust streaks on purlins mean chronic leakage.
• Check the steel: columns, trusses, purlins, and bracing. Surface rust is normal; section loss, bent members, and missing bracing are not. Photograph anything doubtful for your structural engineer.
• Check side sheeting, ventilators, and turbo vents. Poor ventilation makes a shed brutal in a Bhiwadi summer and adds to your cooling load.
• Look at the gutters and downtake pipes. Blocked or missing rainwater disposal shows up as wall staining and floor damage.
• Ask the age of the structure and whether the roof has been replaced. An old frame with new sheeting reads differently from a uniformly old shed.

Office block and amenities

• Inspect the office portion separately: structure, wiring, toilets, and water supply. Office refurbishment is cheaper than shed repair, but budget it.
• Check worker facilities: toilets, washing area, drinking water point, and any labour room. Factory compliance inspections look at these.
• Check the security room, weighbridge if any, and boundary lighting. Ask whether the weighbridge works and when it was last calibrated; a dead weighbridge is scrap, not an asset.

Measure clear height, floor condition, and gate width yourself on every visit; these three kill more industrial deals after purchase than any title issue.

Power and Utilities

Power is usually the single most expensive item to fix after purchase, so it deserves the most patient questioning during the visit.

Electrical connection

• Ask for the sanctioned load in writing and note the connection number from the meter or a recent bill. Verify the sanctioned figure with the electricity distribution company directly; do not rely on the seller’s number.
• Distinguish sanctioned load from connected equipment. A seller may quote the load his machines once drew, not what the connection legally permits.
• Match the sanctioned load against your own process requirement. If you need more, ask the distribution company what an enhancement involves for that connection and feeder before you buy, because feasibility and cost vary by location.
• Check whether the connection is live, disconnected, or surrendered. Reviving a long-dead connection can be slower and costlier than the seller implies.
• Ask for recent electricity bills. They confirm the connection status, reveal arrears, and show real consumption. Pending electricity dues follow the premises in practice and become your negotiation point.

On-site electrical infrastructure

• Locate the metering point and the transformer, if the unit has a dedicated one. Note the transformer’s stated capacity from its nameplate and photograph it.
• Inspect the panel room: main panel condition, cabling, earthing pits, and any capacitor bank. Scorched panels and improvised wiring predict rewiring cost.
• Ask which items convey with the sale: transformer, panels, DG set, cabling, light fittings. Get the included list in writing; sellers routinely strip electricals between visit and possession.
• If a DG set exists, note its capacity from the nameplate, ask its age and hours, and run it if possible. Ask whether its papers and any required approvals are in order.
• Check voltage stability with neighbours. Units on the same feeder share its problems; two minutes of conversation with an adjoining factory tells you more than the seller will.

Water

• Ask the water source: RIICO supply line, borewell, tanker, or a combination. Verify which of these exists on this plot, with what approvals.
• If there is a borewell, ask its depth, yield, and whether required permissions exist. Groundwater rules apply; verify the position with the relevant authority rather than accepting a verbal assurance.
• Run the taps. Check the overhead and underground tanks for capacity and condition.
• Match the available water against your process need. A water-intensive process needs this answered precisely before purchase, not after.

Drainage and effluent

• Trace where rainwater leaves the plot. Look for a connection to the area’s storm drain and check the drain outside the plot is intact and flowing, not silted solid.
• Ask how sewage is handled: connection to a line, or a septic tank on the plot. Locate the septic tank if one exists.
• If your process generates trade effluent, this becomes a central question. Ask what effluent arrangement the current unit had, whether any treatment plant exists on site, and in what condition. Verify with the pollution control board what your own process would require here.
• Check for signs of past dumping: stained soil, buried drums, chemical odour, dead vegetation patches. Contamination cleanup lands on the new owner in practice, and it is expensive.

Compliance

Papers decide whether the property can legally run your process. Check what you can on site and list what needs authority verification afterwards.

Permitted use

• For a RIICO plot, ask for the allotment letter and confirm the permitted use and any activity conditions attached to it. Your intended activity must fit; a use change is a formal process with the authority, not a formality.
• Ask whether the plot has met RIICO’s utilisation and construction conditions. Unutilised or under-utilised plots can carry penalties or restoration risk that transfers with the plot. Our RIICO plot vs private industrial land comparison explains why this check matters more on allotted land.
• On private industrial land, ask for the land-use conversion order and check that the conversion covers industrial use. Agricultural land with a factory on it is a problem you do not want to inherit.

RIICO dues and transfer

• Ask for the latest dues-clearance position from RIICO: service charges, economic rent, water charges if supplied, and any penalty. Arrears must be settled before transfer; who pays them is a price negotiation, but the figure must be known before you sign anything.
• Ask whether any show-cause notice, cancellation proceeding, or litigation touches the plot. Request copies of RIICO correspondence for the last few years.
• Confirm the transfer route: RIICO’s transfer procedure applies to allotted plots, with its own charges and conditions. Build its timeline into your plan.

Fire

• Ask whether the unit holds a fire NOC and for which occupancy and capacity. Note the issue and validity dates from the certificate itself.
• Walk the fire installations: extinguishers and their refill dates, hose reels, hydrant ring if any, pump room, and water storage for firefighting. Dead installations mean the NOC position may not survive renewal.
• Check escape routes and whether exits are blocked by stored material. This tells you about the seller’s operating discipline generally.

Pollution consents

• Ask for the unit’s Consent to Establish (CTE) and Consent to Operate (CTO) from the Rajasthan pollution control board, note the category and validity, and photograph the certificates.
• Understand that consents attach to an activity, not just a building. Your process may fall in a different category from the seller’s; verify with the board what your activity requires at this location before purchase.
• Ask about any board notices, closure directions, or conditions imposed on the unit. Request the correspondence file.
• If the process involved hazardous waste, ask how it was stored and disposed, and look at the storage area yourself.

Other papers to ask about

• Building-plan approval and completion or occupancy position for the structures standing.
• Factory licence or other registrations the current occupier held, where relevant to your activity.
• Any lease, licence, or occupant currently on the premises, in writing. Vacant possession must be a documented condition of sale.

The full paperwork trail from offer to registration is covered in documents required to buy property in Bhiwadi; this visit is where you collect the raw material for that process.

No consent, NOC, or sanctioned figure is real until you have seen the document and verified it with the issuing authority.

Surroundings and Neighbours

You buy the neighbourhood along with the plot. Spend the last half hour of the visit outside the gate.

• Identify the immediate neighbours and their activities. A food or pharma unit next to a heavy-fume or high-dust process creates friction both ways; check compatibility with your own activity.
• Ask neighbours direct questions: power reliability on this feeder, waterlogging history, theft incidents, labour availability, and how responsive RIICO maintenance is. Neighbours have no reason to varnish the answers.
• Ask specifically about the property you are viewing. Neighbours know about disputes, past accidents, closures, and why the seller is selling.
• Note vacant plots adjoining you. They are future construction noise and future neighbours of unknown activity; they are also your only expansion route.
• Check the distance to labour housing and public transport. Worker commute distance drives attrition in this belt.
• Note distance to a fire station, hospital, police station, bank, and transporter offices. These matter weekly once you operate.
• Visit once in the evening or early morning if the deal is serious. Lighting, security presence, and truck congestion look different outside office hours.

Location choice within the belt is a separate decision from property choice; why manufacturers choose Bhiwadi covers the belt-level logic.

Documents to Collect or Photograph on Site

Do not leave the visit with only impressions. Leave with copies or clear photographs of whatever the seller will show:

• Allotment letter and site plan, for a RIICO plot.
• Sale deed or lease deed under which the seller holds the property.
• Latest RIICO dues statement or receipts, and any RIICO correspondence offered.
• Sanctioned building plan.
• Recent electricity bill and the sanctioned-load document.
• Water connection papers or borewell permissions, as applicable.
• Fire NOC.
• CTE and CTO certificates.
• Property tax or other local receipts, where applicable.
• Photographs you take yourself: gate with tape measure visible, meter and transformer nameplates, floor defects, roof from inside, boundary walls, the approach road in both directions, and every certificate shown.

Photograph documents even when the seller promises copies later. Photograph nameplates and meters even when figures are quoted verbally. Your photo set becomes the reference when the lawyer’s due diligence begins and when memory of three shortlisted properties starts to blur.

Ask for what is missing in writing, with a date. A seller who cannot produce basic papers on a scheduled visit is telling you something about the state of the file.

Red Flags

Any one of these justifies pausing the deal until it is resolved; several together justify walking away.

• Seller resists measurement, discourages photographs, or hurries the visit.
• Ground measurements differ materially from the papers.
• No allotment letter or title document available even for inspection.
• RIICO dues position unknown or admitted arrears with no statement.
• Electricity disconnected long ago, with vague answers on revival.
• Fresh paint over floor cracks or roof patches shown only from outside.
• Fire NOC or pollution consents expired, absent, or in a different name than the seller’s.
• Unsanctioned construction the seller calls “regularisable”.
• An occupant on the premises with no written vacation commitment.
• Encroachment on the boundary in either direction.
• Waterlogging evidence the seller denies despite silt marks on the walls.
• Neighbours describe disputes or closures the seller did not mention.
• Pressure to pay a token amount on the spot to “hold” the property before any document check.

Walk away from any deal where the seller blocks measurement, photography, or document inspection; there is no innocent reason for it.

Summary Checklist Table

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a proper industrial site visit take?

Budget half a day for a serious candidate. Access, measurement, structure, utilities, and neighbour conversations cannot be compressed into a thirty-minute walkthrough. First-round filtering visits can be shorter; the property you intend to buy deserves a second, unhurried visit, ideally at a different time of day.

Who should come along on the visit?

Bring the person who knows your process and machine requirements, and someone who can measure and photograph while you talk. For a shortlisted built property, bring a structural engineer before you commit, and an electrician or your plant maintenance head for the panel room and wiring. Your lawyer works from documents afterwards and does not need to attend, but everything they will ask for gets collected here.

Can I rely on the dealer’s inspection instead of doing my own?

No. A good dealer’s check, including ours, filters properties and flags obvious problems, which saves you wasted visits. It does not replace your own measurement against your own process needs, a lawyer’s title search, or an engineer’s structural opinion. Use the dealer to shortlist; use professionals to confirm. See what a property dealer in Bhiwadi actually does for where the line sits.

What is the single most common problem found on Bhiwadi site visits?

Gaps between claimed and verifiable power position, in our experience since 2008. Sellers quote loads from memory, quote connected machinery instead of sanctioned load, or gloss over disconnection and arrears. Always verify the sanctioned load and connection status with the distribution company directly, and get recent bills during the visit.

Do I need to verify RIICO dues before or after agreeing a price?

Before. Arrears of service charges, economic rent, and penalties must be cleared for the transfer to proceed, and the amount directly affects what the property is worth to you. Ask for a current dues statement during the visit and confirm the figure with the RIICO unit office before you sign anything or pay any token amount.

The unit has a fire NOC and pollution consents. Am I covered?

Not automatically. Consents and NOCs have validity dates, attach to a stated activity and capacity, and stand in the current occupier’s name. If your process differs from the seller’s, or their papers have lapsed, you may need fresh approvals in your own name. Note the exact details from each certificate during the visit and verify your own requirement with the fire authority and the pollution control board before purchase.

What should I check on a vacant RIICO plot, where there is no building?

Access, measurement, boundary demarcation, and paper checks carry the full weight. Measure frontage and depth against the allotment documents, insist on formal demarcation before registration, trace the storm drain, ask the discom about power availability on that lane, and check the plot’s utilisation position and dues with RIICO. Look for dumping, encroachment, and any line or right-of-way crossing the plot. The RIICO plots buyers’ guide and our industrial property in Bhiwadi page cover the purchase process from there.