Committed to Road Safety

R S Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki, said, “Road Safety is increasingly becoming a matter of national importance. As a leader in automobile industry Maruti Suzuki has been working on inculcating safe driving habits among people through our various driving training initiatives. This initiative of city-wise Road Safety Index further strengthens our mission for safer roads. We are optimistic that the index will serve as a reference point for the stakeholders to identify and work in a systematic manner to improve road safety scenario in their respective cities.”

Maruti Suzuki’s CSR initiative is focused on training drivers on safe driving at its 300 driving schools and six driver training institutes set up jointly with the governments of Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat and Uttarakhand. Under the aegis of the National Road Safety Mission. The company also had also started two institutes to impart driving training to new as well as existing drivers in Maruti Suzuki cars.

Opened in association with the dealer network, Maruti Driving Schools provide world-class driving training to those who want to drive with confidence. Inculcating global best practices, learning at MDS includes Classroom and Attitudinal Training. Advanced simulators create on-road driving situations so that the learners get a firsthand feel of the road before they actually drive. Special initiatives include lady instructors for women learners. Today, there are over 376 schools setup nationwide, and we have already helped more than 6.5 lakh drivers get more confident and better.

Institute of Driving Training and Research

IDTR was set up with Government collaboration as a private-public partnership. For the first time, driving was taught using scientifically-designed test tracks and driving simulators. Films were created to make learners aware of the behavioral aspects of driving, imparted through classes that catered to both light and heavy vehicle drivers. After the success of the first IDTR, many state governments came forward with a proposal for an IDTR in their state. Today, IDTR-certified commercial drivers are sought after and easily employable.

Through MDS and IDTR, Maruti Suzuki have already trained over 17 lakh drivers, of which 1.55 lakh drivers are from economically weaker sections. The company helps develop course content and build infrastructure such as driving tracks, classrooms and simulators for drivers of all types of vehicles.

Preeti Swaminathan