The high-speed track located in Pithampur is the fifth largest in the world
Asia’s largest high-speed track, located at the The National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) facility, in Pithampur, Madhya Pradesh, was inaugurated by Union Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Prakash Javadekar, today.
The Pithampur high-speed track (oval-shaped) has 4 lanes, is 11.3 km long, 16 m wide, and has banked curves as well.
It has been designed for neutral speed up to 250 km/hr and maximum speed up to 375 km/hr on the curves, while there is no limit to maximum speed along the straights.
According to the Ministry of Heavy Industries, a sportscar tested at the facility recently touched 308 km/hr along the curves.
All types of vehicles can be tested there and carmakers like FCA, Volkswagen, Lamborghini, and Renault have already shown their interest to use this facility which is the fifth-largest of its kind in the world.
It will be used to carry out development and homologation tests for all kinds of vehicles, facilitate component testing and to also measure the maximum speed of automobiles.
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be able to make use of the various types of tracks and test rigs present at NATRAX to evaluate different parameters of a vehicle.
The state-of-the-art automotive testing and certification centre has been developed in about 3000 acres of land and is situated 50 km from Indore. The high-speed track is among 16 test tracks present there, while 5 laboratories have also been setup.