Bharat-NCAP: Gadkari approves draft notification for India’s own in-house crash tests; details here

Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari has approved the draft notification to introduce Bharat-NCAP or Bharat New Car Assessment Program on Friday. Under this programme, cars will be given star ratings by factoring in their performance in crash tests. Gadkari confirmed the development in a series of tweets.

The Union Minister further explained that Bharat-NCAP will be a consumer centric platform that will offer customers the option to choose safer cars based on star ratings, promote healthy competition amongst automakers in India to manufacture safer vehicles and incorporate higher safety levels in new car models with regard to various identified parameters.

He added, “Star rating of Indian cars based on crash tests is extremely crucial not only to ensure structural and passenger safety in cars, but to also increase the export-worthiness of Indian automobiles.”

Gadkari went onto say that Bharat-NCAP’s testing protocol shall be aligned to global crash test protocols and allow automakers to get vehicles tested at India’s own in-house testing facilities. He added that this will prove crucial in making the Indian automobile industry 'aatmanirbhar' or self-reliant.

Gadkari said towards the end of his Twitter thread, “Bharat NCAP will prove to be a critical instrument in making our automobile industry 'aatmanirbhar' with the mission of making India the number one automobile hub in the world.”

For the unversed, Gadkari apprised the Parliament in March this year about Bharat-NCAP. He said in a written reply, “The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways is working on a proposal in consultation with the stakeholders to formulate a plan which would test and assess the star rating of a car under the Bharat New Car Assessment Program (BNCAP).”

(With agency inputs)