Multiple Vehicle Testing Centres Coming Up In India

People in India have always tended to look at cars as a medium to travel from point A to point B and back and were never really interested in the safety aspect of the wagon. This is also evident If we take into consideration the fact that the country's top-selling car, the Maruti Suzuki Alto, is far from being the safest car in India. Having said that, Indians are slowly beginning to take everything from features, safety, styling and fuel-economy much more seriously than before.

A few months ago, some made-in-India cars were tested by GNCAP (Global New Car Assessment Programme) and nearly all of them scored a zero, both on pedestrian as well as passenger safety. To keep a stringent check on the safety and fuel-efficiency stats of the vehicles being sold in India, the government is building state-of-the-art testing facilities in seven cities: Manesar, Bengaluru, Indore, Pune, Rai Bareli and Silchar.

The testing facilities are being set up by the National Automotive Testing And R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP). To be built at a cost of Rs 3,700 crore, these centres will rate cars on passenger safety features and fuel efficiency. The star rating will help customers narrow down on the vehicle they want, based on their safety and fuel-efficiency requirements. A senior government official shared that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is making the frontal and side car crash tests mandatory for new car models by October 2017, and for all cars by 2019.

To have a star rating system in place for fuel efficiency, the government official added, "A formula for giving the rating is being worked out on the basis of quantity of fuel consumed by a car over a distance of 100km. Vehicle manufactures will have to comply with energy consumption standards under the provisions of Energy Conservation Act."

India is in a dire need for a governing body that not only highlights how safe or fuel efficient a car is but also recommends various means and ways to make the roads safer. This will only be possible once the infrastructure to study the crash tests is in place and based on the same, vehicle manufacturers and the government can be notified to work towards making road transport safer.