India will now have its own version of the car assessment mechanism as the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari launched the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat NCAP) on Tuesday.
It aims to enhance road safety by elevating vehicle safety standards for up to 3.5-tonne vehicles in India.
The program will commence from Oct 1, 2023 and will be based on Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 197. It aims to create an ecosystem of competitive safety enhancements leading to increased awareness among consumers. Consumers can take an informed decision by making a comparative assessment on vehicle performance under crash test conditions.
The Program is applicable to type-approved motor vehicles of M1 category less than 3.5T GVW. This is a voluntary program in which the base variants of a given model shall be tested.
Addressing the gathering the minister said this is a landmark step towards empowering our consumers for being able to make a better choice for buying safer cars.
“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 said.
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 highlighted.
NCAP brings the opportunity to the OEMs to manufacture vehicles of global safety standards. Program will be anchored by Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) .This program has been evolved based on stakeholder consultations .