Indian government working on a new Bharat NCAP test for cars
NCAP or New Car Assessment Programme is a set of crash tests that all new cars are put though before being homologated. Different regions in the world have different passing criteria, and India is set to get a stringent set of new benchmarks for all new cars to follow.
By Dhruv Paliwal
The frontal crash-test speed could go up from 56km/h to 64km/h under the new NCAP regime.
According to reports, the Indian government is working on implementing the first New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) in the country. Cars currently sold in India are expected to meet certain crash test protocols but these have been borrowed from other NCAP programmes, and aren’t as stringent as their NCAP protocols in other regions like Europe.
The Central Institute of Road Transport is leading the charge toward this new NCAP programme. MoRTH (Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways) is always involved and Global NCAP too could have a role to play in Bharat NCAP. For your reference, Global NCAP is the authority that has been testing Indian cars for years now and has a data bank of over 50 Indian cars.
Leading NCAP programmes follow higher-speed crash tests and the new Bharat NCAP is expected to go along the same lines. The frontal crash test speed limit will be set at 64km/h and while most of the protocols will be standard as other tests throughout the world, Bharat NCAP will get a few India-specific parameters too.
With newer and newer safety features finding their way onboard new cars, it isn’t a stretch that the Bharat NCAP might make a few more safety features such as electronic stability control (ESC) mandatory on all cars, or at least to get a good rating.
Also Read: Six airbags to be mandatory in all cars from October, 2022
