The government is currently in the process of setting up its crash test centre and will provide star rating on all new vehicles starting from 2017.
In a recent statement, Road and Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari announced that all vehicles sold in the country including the cheaper small cars will have to be fitted with minimum safety features. The statement comes at a time when there is a lot of unrest regarding the safety standards on India made vehicles and signifies the seriousness of the government towards vehicular safety. The past year has been all about promoting safety features on small cars that has been ignored by most manufacturers.
At present, the Indian government is in the process of setting up the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Program (Bharat NVCAP) and is also building a new crash test centre that is expected to be ready by the end of 2015. The new vehicles will be subjected to a full frontal crash test at 56 km/hr and will also be given a star rating based on crash test results and safety features on board. Initially, it will be voluntary for car manufacturers to adopt the new car test norms which will become mandatory from October 2017 onwards. The new safety norms on existing models will be mandatory from October 2018.
The road and transport ministry’s advisory committee CMVR-TCS comprising of members from heavy industries, BIS, ARAI among others are currently assessing the minimum tests and safety features that every new car in India will need to be equipped with over the next few years. While car manufacturers have been avoiding safety features on account of additional cost by 30 percent, there has been a significant awareness in the need of safety features on vehicles.
