Government plans to bring safety star ratings for new cars
The Central Government has been planning to introduce a new upcoming cars rating system with stars, based on how safe the car is termed in safety tests and safety equipment. Pon Radhakrishnan, Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, revealed the Union Government’s plans at the Lok Sabha recently.
The plan comes out of the proposal by the Bharat NCAP (New Car Assessment Programme), which rates cars based on their safety performances. “Several Indian cars got poor star ratings in the crash test performed under global new car assessment programme conducted by Global NCAP, which is an international voluntary organisation working in the interest of consumers,” said the Minister.
The programme will find implementation in phases, even by the manufacturers themselves, despite the common testing platform of the Bharat NCAP. Initially, the manufacturers themselves will conduct the safety tests with crash tests, frontal and side impacts, passenger safety, child safety, seat-belt alerts, braking equipment like ABS, EBD, ESC, etc. Based on these performances, parameters and equipment, a star rating will be assigned by the Bharat NCAP.
In the meantime, the Bharat NCAP itself will get a testing facility with the necessary infrastructure to carry out tests and assign rating fully by itself. The Bharat NCAP will also operate with the same guidelines as that of the Global NCAP with the same safety requirements and parameters. Beginning from October 2017, all new car models will bear the Bharat NCAP star rating, while it will be extended to all the existing models from 2019.
Source: Vicky.in