India to have own car crash test facility

Vijay Chibber, Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) has announced that India would have its own Car Crash Test Facility by the end of financial year 2014-15. The facility, to be set up at Chennai, will be a part of the New Car Assessment Programme being designed by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. The facility will be set up by the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) under the Centre of Excellence for Passive Safety at GARC-Chennai. Other facilities at at iCAT and ARAI are also being setup for the testing of passive safety features of cars.

Currently cars need to undergo a front and rear crash test to be sold in the country, but with the new NCAP regulations cars will be tested more thoroughly, and will be certified as roadworthy only after they pass the new tests.

The facility will conduct tests complying with Euro NCAP, among the most stringent crash test certifications in the world. The Central government is also examining creating a recall policy that includes testing of vehicles for manufacturing defects. When such a defect is detected, the vehicle will have to be recalled and the defective component replaced.