India’s own car rating system – Bharat New Car Assessment Program – the first draft notification for which was signed on Friday, will come into effect from April next year. The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has proposed to introduce the safety rating system for passenger cars to motivate automakers to give advanced safety features and boost the “export worthiness” of vehicles made in India.
Bharat NCAP rating mechanism will enable automobiles to be given Star Ratings to cars based on their performance on crash tests.
Bharat NCAP applicability
The road transport ministry, in a notification dated June 24, 2022, said that the rating system is applicable on type approved motor vehicles of category M1 (motor vehicles used for the carriage of passengers, comprising eight seats, in addition to driver’s seat) with gross vehicle weight less than 3.5 tonnes, manufactured or imported in the country.
The standard is aligned with global benchmarks and it is beyond minimum regulatory requirements.
Bharat NCAP rating will offer consumers an indication of the level of protection offered to occupants by evaluating the vehicle in the areas of — adult occupant protection, child occupant protection and safety assist technologies.
The testing of vehicles for this programme will be carried out at testing agencies, with the necessary infrastructure, the statement added.
The date of applicability of the system will be April 1, 2023. The ministry said the system introduces the concept of safety rating of passenger cars and empowers consumers to take informed decisions. “It will promote export worthiness of the cars produced by OEMs in the country and increase the domestic customer’s confidence in these vehicles,” it noted.
Meanwhile, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, in a series of tweets on Friday, said the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme will serve as a consumer-centric platform, allowing customers to opt for safer cars based upon their Star-Ratings, while promoting a healthy competition among original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in India to manufacture safer vehicles.
The Road Transport and Highways minister had 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 proposed assessment will allocate Star Ratings from 1 to 5 stars and 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.
