The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari and others during the launching of the Bharat NCAP in New Delhi on August 22. (PIB Photo)
To be implemented from October 1
New Delhi, August 22 (MExN): Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday launched the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP), India's own crash testing safety programme in New Delhi.
The NCAP is aimed at enhancing road safety by elevating vehicle safety standards for up to 3.5-tonne vehicles in India.
Addressing the event, the Minister said that the Bharat NCAP is a landmark step towards empowering our consumers for being able to make a better choice for buying safer cars.
The new safety regime under BHARAT NCAP and AIS-197 is a mutual win-win for manufacturers and consumers and an instrumental step towards safeguarding lives of our citizens and making our Automobile Industry the number one auto manufacturing hub in the world, he maintained.
Bharat NCAP will also greatly push the safety and quality of the vehicles in India, while simultaneously promoting a healthy competition among OEMs to manufacture safer vehicles, he added.
An official MoRTH release, the NCAP Programme is applicable to type approved motor vehicles of M1 category less than 3.5T GVW.
The NCAP, aimed at creating ecosystem of competitive safety enhancements leading to increased awareness among consumers, will begin from October 1 and will be based on Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 197, it informed.
“Consumers can take an informed decision by making a comparative assessment on vehicle performance under crash test conditions,” it added.
The NCAP also brings the opportunity to the OEMs to manufacture vehicles of global safety standards and it will anchored by Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT).
Meanwhile, as per the IANS news agency, Gadkari informed that it was a mission of the government to launch the NCAP.
“Cost of testing from abroad is Rs 2.5 crore and in India under the Bharat NCAP it is Rs 60 lakhs. And with global standards your market is going to increase,” he was quoted as saying.
“By the star rating people can understand the quality of the product and now we are going to create awareness in the mind of the people,” he added.
The Minister further maintained that there is a huge demand for higher star rating vehicles and request for certifying 30 models from several manufacturers have been received so far.
