Automobile After Cyrus Mistry, a former chairman of Tata Sons, was killed in a car accident on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad national highway, the Central government decided to add more security features to automobiles. The features include one in which alarm will sound while parking, driving too fast, and when the back seat belt is not fastened.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways solicited comments and suggestions from interested parties on September 19 about the introduction of extra security measures in taxis and private vehicles.By October 5, the stakeholders must provide the Ministry with their suggestions and complaints.

The Motor Vehicles Act 2002 makes it mandatory for the rear passengers of the car to wear a seat belt. There is a provision of fine for violating this, in the amendment in the 2019 Act, the fine amount was increased to Rs 1,000.

Under the new system, if seat belt is not worn while sitting in the rear seat, the sound of beep will continue to come along with the sound. This will alert the driver. The car will have two levels of alerts. The seat belt light on the dash board will light up when the engine of the first car is started.

When the car is running on the second level, a beep will be heard for four seconds or more. The option of connecting the announcement system with the sound of the beep will be explored. The sound of putting on the seat belt will keep coming. The driver will get an alert sound when the car is over speeding.

Apart from this, a reverse parking alert system will be made mandatory in cars under Automotive Industry Standard-053 (AIS). After the amendment in the AIS, the new rule will come into force and car manufacturers will have to make the above changes in private cars-taxis. In the amendment, a provision is being made to do away with the rule regarding installation of child lock in taxis.

Budget vehicles may acquire back seat airbags, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. However, sources claim that the relevant parties are not prepared. The stakeholders wrote to the Ministry on September 15 in response to the Ministry’s exercise.

There has been a push to make the rear airbag optional in this. They contend that doing so will raise the cost of the autos. It should be remembered that the cost of inexpensive cars has already climbed by 1.5 lakh rupees in the past year. The sale of autos would suffer in such a circumstance.