India To Launch its Own Car Assessment Programme Soon

India is all set to begin the assessment of the domestic cars in the country itself. The Indian car assessment programme is likely to be called Bharat NCAP. It would be previously referred as Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Programme (BNVSAP). The public announcement about the programme along with other relevant details will be made shortly within a week.

Abhay Damle, joint secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) confirmed that the details will be issued by coming week.

During a presentation at the Indian Automobile Safety Conference co-hosted by Institute of Road Traffic Management and Global NCAP, AV Mannikar, senior deputy director, Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), stated that, “Bharat NCAP will be more broad-based than any other NCAP at the time of introduction. It is proposed that the features of the programme will remain same for some time. Bharat NCAP will initially be voluntary. Given that India has a huge population of two- and three-wheelers, the safety rating may also include these vehicles.”

The proposed speed for testing the vehicles under Bharat NCAP is likely to be kept around 56kph. Moreover, a mandatory speed warning feature has been proposed for all the vehicles which will be covered under the programme.

Balraj Bhanot, former director of ARAI and chairman, CMVR – technical standing committee, MoRTH says, “Along with a new framework for safety, there should also be a strong focus on enforcing existing rules to ensure that vehicles are maintained well and that they run safely. He also spoke up about the provision of defining the age of the vehicle and end its cycle after a specified period of time.

Meanwhile, Global NCAP’s Secretary-General, David Ward stated that, “Government can promote safer cars by giving short-term fiscal incentives for safety technologies. Without the Government intervention it is not easy to implement such things.”

Nitin Gadkari, Union minister for road transport & highways, put forward major issues related to the road and highway safety in India. He assured that the Govt. will be working on improving the infrastructure and will bring more advancement in the safety and emission norms in the country very soon. As the affordability rate in India is different from the western country, the Indian policies on the vehicles is likely to be different from others.

Also Read: Major Indian Cars score Zero Rating in Global NCAP Crash Test

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Source: AutocarIndia