Road Map For Safer Cars For India Debated At Delhi Conference
The future road map for safer cars in India has been debated at a special meeting hosted by the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) in association with the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and Global NCAP. The meeting held at the College of Traffic Management on 3 November coincided with the release of new crash test results from the Safer Cars for India project and brought together senior representatives of the Indian Government, industry and road safety experts.
Principle speakers at the meeting included Krishan Pal, Minister of State for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping, Vijay Chibber IAS secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Max Mosley, Chairman of Global NCAP and Rohit Bajua, President of the IRTE.
The Minister of State, Krishan Pal, stressed both the government’s commitment to road safety and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to ‘Make in India’. The Minister said that this was a call not just for more production “but for high quality as well”, and that “safety should be required not just for cars to be exported but also those sold in India”.
IAS Secretary Vijay Chibber outlined the Government’s proposal to launch a new Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Programme (BNVSAP) and commented that the results of the Safer Cars for India project served as “a wake-up call to industry”. He said that “we cannot have business as usual and urged industry to rise to the occasion to partner with us and stop saying 56 km/h and no further”.
On behalf of Global NCAP Max Mosley stressed the benefits to India of having both “regulation and information” to improve car safety. He encouraged the government to take a first step of applying the UN’s frontal impact test standard (UN R94) to be followed by the launch of a Bharat NCAP at 64 km/h, the speed commonly used by NCAP consumer test programmes around the world. This approach was then further developed by Global NCAP’s Technical Director, Alejandro Furas who gave a presentation that compared the test requirements of UN R94 with an NCAP 64 km/k test (see below).
Safer Cars For India – latest results from Global NCAP
Rohit Baluja, President of the Institute of Road Traffic Education (IRTE) warned that : “Consumers are not yet aware of the safety aspects of the vehicle they purchase” and said: “it must be the responsibility of both the vehicle manufacturer and seller to provide this information to the consumer and make this aspect the basis of marketing.”
The meeting concluded with a panel discussion chaired by IAS Joint Secretary, Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Sanjay Bandopadhyaya. During the session the proposed BNVSAP was discussed and Global NCAP’s Secretary General, David Ward outlined recommendations for a regulatory road map that the organization will be submitting to next year’s mid-term review conference for the UN Decade of Action.
YOUTUBE
