New Delhi: To boost road safety in India, Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said the new car assessment programme – Bharat NCAP – proposes a mechanism wherein automobiles in India shall be accorded ‘Star Ratings’ based upon their performance in crash tests.
In a series of tweets, Gadkari said it will serve as a consumer-centric platform, allowing customers to opt for safer cars based upon the ratings, while promoting a healthy competition among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to make safer vehicles.
The Road Transport and Highways minister stressed that Star Ratings 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.
The testing protocol of Bharat NCAP shall be aligned with global crash-test protocols factoring in the existing Indian regulations, allowing OEMs to get their vehicles tested at India’s own in-house testing facilities, Gadkari said.
He said Bharat NCAP will encourage manufacturers to participate voluntarily in the safety testing assessment programme and incorporate higher safety levels in new car models. The proposed assessment will allocate Star Ratings from 1 to 5 stars. The initiative is aimed at making mobility safer amid the country witnessing a total of 3,66,138 road accidents during the calendar year 2020, causing 1,31,714 deaths.
