Aseismic design of structures has been a subject of great interest for engineers and seis- mologists in recent times as more and more instrumental and observational data duing the earthquakes are becoming available in different parts of the world. Normally, the seismic forces are determined from the seismic regionalisation maps based on studies of seismic intensities, ground accelerations etc. during past earthquakes. However, the effects of local geology, depth of the structure below the ground surface (for underground structures) and dynamic characteristics of the structure on the seismic forces thus estimated should also be incorporated in order to obtain the suitable value of design seismic coefficient. Attempts have been made here to discuss a suitable approach to estimate the same in the light of above factors with a few illustrative examples.