The new mandate from the government is its bid to make sure that the cars sold in India meet minimum safety parameters which includes clearing frontal crash test.
In a competitive and money centric market like India, many automobile manufacturers are shying away from safety regularities in order to keep the prices low. The Indian customer too compromises on some of the safety equipments to make it a cost-effective purchase. In order to solve the problem, which is getting bigger and bigger due to more and more cars being sold in India with each passing day, the government has decided to take some steps to make the cars safer than before.
According to the latest developments, all the cars being sold in India October 2015 onwards will need to have basic safety features like air bags, ABS, child restraint systems, seat belt reminders, reinforced body structures, and also need to pass the frontal crash test. This also means that the prices of the cars will rise subsequently considering the extra money that will go in the making of these cars. The new NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme) regulations will require the cars to pass frontal and side impact crash tests at 56 kmph. Currently, cars are made to withstand the tests at 46 kmph.
It is a significant step in this direction considering the fact that most of the famous cars in India have failed Global NCAP crash tests since the beginning of this year. This made manufacturers like Volkswagen and Toyota offer airbags as a standard fitment in all of their cars.
Confirming the news, Road transport and highways secretary, Vijay Chhibber said, "We will notify the regulatory norm by next March when facilities to carry out such test will be ready. Then the manufacturers will have over six months to comply with the norm. When they can produce cars with minimum and mandatory safety requirement for other countries, why can't they do the same for our domestic buyers?"
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