Like the Euro NCAP, India will soon be getting a car safety performance assessment programme. It is said that the Road Transport Ministry has already commenced the process for setting up such a facility. It is now seen that the Indian authorities organize all the safety tests and the crash tests for the vehicles that are launched in the Indian market.
NCAP, on the other hand, is a system of rating vehicular safety by conducting the safety tests and rating the cars on a scale of five, which indicates vehicle’s safety rate. There are a number of tests that are conducted in order to determine the vehicle’s safety features by looking at the performance of the car in the tests. The crash tests conducted include pole impact, side impact, front impact and even pedestrians. Under the ‘Centre of Excellence’, the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project is said to establish a new facility for the purpose of carrying out the safety tests. ARAI and iCAT are two of the facilities that are already based at the same location.
Most of the major countries have their own way of judging the level of safety of a vehicle through a number of tests, which are mandatory for the vehicles to pass in order to be offered for sale in the market. Since the cars in India currently go through only the rear and front crash tests, the ministry is also planning to check the structural strength of the cars.
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