India NCAP will be the new car safety assessment program for cars manufactured and sold in India. The appraisal program proposes a mechanism for assigning ‘star rating’ to vehicles based on their performance in the crash test facility. As confirmed by the official statement, the assessment will be effective from April 1, 2023. According to the statement, the Bharat New Car Assessment Program will be applicable for all vehicles falling in the M1 category, which weigh less than 3.5 tonnes and have a seating capacity of less than 9 people.
This standard is aligned with global benchmarks and is beyond the minimum regulatory requirements, it said.
The India NCAP rating will provide consumers an indication of the level of protection it provides for those evaluating the vehicle – in the areas of adult occupant safety, child occupant safety and safety assistance technologies, the statement said. In.
The vehicles for this program will be tested at testing agencies with necessary infrastructure.
In a series of tweets, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the India New Car Assessment Program (Bharat NCAP) will serve as a consumer-centric platform whereby customers can opt for safer cars based on their star-ratings. while healthy competition among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in India to manufacture safer vehicles.
“I have now approved the draft GSR notification to introduce India NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme), in which automobiles in India will be given star ratings based on their performance in crash tests,” Gadkari said.
The Minister of Road Transport and Highways had emphasized that star rating of Indian cars based on crash tests is of utmost importance not only to ensure structural and passenger safety in cars, but also to enhance the export-worthiness of Indian automobiles.
Gadkari had said that India NCAP’s test protocols would be combined with global crash-test protocols factoring into existing Indian regulations, allowing OEMs to test their vehicles at India’s in-house testing facilities.
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According to him, India NCAP will prove to be an important instrument in making our automobile industry self-reliant with the mission of making India the top automobile hub in the world.
India will encourage NCAP manufacturers to voluntarily participate in the Safety Test Evaluation Program and incorporate higher safety levels into new car models.
The proposed evaluation will assign a star rating from 1 to 5 stars.
The initiative aims to make mobility safer in a total of 3,66,138 road accidents in the country resulting in 1,31,714 deaths during the calendar year 2020.
Recently, Gadkari had said that the government aims to reduce the deaths in road accidents by 50 percent by 2024.
(with inputs from PTI)