Govt to roll out vehicle safety programme Bharat NCAP on October 1
The government will roll out the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP) on October 1. Under the programme, which is on the lines of the Global NCAP and European NCAP, new vehicles will be checked for safety and assigned star ratings based on their performance in crash tests.
Launching the programme on Tuesday, Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said it was a historic day for the automobile industry and society. He said more than five lakh accidents take place in India every year, resulting in 1.5 lakh deaths, and that Bharat NCAP will help curb these alarming numbers.
He said it will also help the Indian automobile industry tap the export market with both cost and quality propositions. The testing protocol of Bharat NCAP is expected to be in line with global crash test protocols while factoring existing Indian regulations.
Crash-testing vehicles is currently not mandatory but a few companies have voluntarily had some of their models tested at NCAP-accredited centres in Europe. With Bharat NCAP in place, such testing could be done within the country at much lower costs.
The introduction of an India-specific NCAP will also increase localisation of safety components, leading to the production and adoption of safer vehicles. Though crash testing may be voluntary to start with, the rules could be made more stringent once sufficient capacities for such testing are made available.
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