To ensure that passenger cars are safe and of world class standard, as claimed by the car manufacturers, every car hitting the Indian roads from next year on will have to pass a crash test.
For the first time in India, under the Central Motor Vehicle (CMV) rule, it will be mandatory for every vehicle to go through the crash test. The test will be conducted at India's first vehicle safety testing centre in Chennai, which is due to become operational in the next few months.
According to a senior official of the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways (MoRTH), the idea is to see whether a car to be launched has the right degree of safety margin that will save passengers in case of crash. After successfully clearing the safety and crash test, automobile manufacturers will get a certificate attesting to the vehicle's structural strength, and that the vehicle was fit to hit the road.
Currently, cars sold in the country undergo front and rear crash tests. After the Chennai centre becomes operational, all vehicles will be put through tests like frontal car-to-car crash, sled-test, full vehicle crash test and angular car-to-car crash test. "The testing centre will be able to perform safety tests of international standards, and will be equipped to measure and film a crash test," the official said.
While the testing facility at Chennai is in its final stage of construction, the ministry has already started the process of setting standards for the New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). A senior official said that once the NCAP is finalised and notified, all new models of vehicles will have to undergo the safety test.
"The ministry has already started consultations with other ministries and the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) to finalise NCAP. The process will take some time as the standards have to be fixed. We should not be in a hurry to copy norms and standards in vogue in Europe," he said.
The European New Car Assessment Programme (EuroNCAP) is a safety performance assessment programme used in several European countries.
It encourages automobile manufacturers to add safety aspects in their new models. In Europe, all new car models must pass certain safety tests before they are sold. Even the United States has a car assessment programme which ranks cars on the basis of safety features.
This information is made available to public so that people can take an informed decision.
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