Government To Make Six Airbags Mandatory For All Vehicles: Nitin Gadkari

There has been a lot of talk about Bharat NCAP crash norms being introduced in the country and though nothing concrete has come up yet. The Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, was asked about the progress of Bharat NCAP in India during the 'Question Hour' in Parliament. He replied saying, "Norms are already being notified by the Ministry of Road Transport, and Bharat NCAP will be over and above crash standards will improve competition. All over in the world, in South Korea, USA, and European countries, their standards are already fixed. Now this is the need of the hour, and the honourable member is absolutely correct. Every year we are facing, 5 lakh road accidents, and 1.50 lakh deaths. For that reason, we are taking a lot of measures, that is 6 airbags are now mandatory, and from a road safety point of view, it is very important. We have taken a decision to make it mandatory for economic models as well."

Yet again, there was no mention of a timeline for Bharat NCAP crash test norms to be initiated in the country.

The minister, however, did brief everyone about what the crash test norms would cover. He said, "Bharat NCAP will cover Structural safety, the stiffness of the vehicle structure, safety of the adult occupant (crash test), safety of child occupant (crash test), assessment of car design for pedestrian safety (bonnet and bumper design), provision of active and passive safety, safety technologies, 6 airbags, 3-point seat belts, seat belt alert, ESP, ABS."

He went on to state that using all these technologies will protect the lives of the occupants, and that is the biggest reason why the crash rating system is important for the automobile industry. He even said that this will qualitatively improve the automobile industry and at the same time, it will be more useful to push better and safer cars to export markets