Maruti, Mahindra and Toyota welcome ‘Bharat NCAP’: The organization will give safety ratings by crash testing cars, expected to start from October 1.

The country’s leading car makers Mahindra & Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Toyota have welcomed the Bharat New Car Assessment Program (BNCAP). Companies have termed the upcoming rating as a bold step in the right direction for the domestic industry.

Recently there was news that the Road Transport Ministry has fixed parameters for crash testing cars in the country and giving them safety ratings. Along with this, a proposal has been sent to the government to start BNCAP. This agency will give 0 to 5 star rating to the vehicles in the country itself on the basis of their performance in the crash tests. This safety agency can be opened in the country from October 1.

BNCAP was approved in June-2022

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had approved the draft GSR notification to start BNCAP in June-2022. The testing protocol in India NCAP will be similar to the Global NCAP crash test protocol. The existing Indian norms will be taken into account in the crash test.

Will be able to see crash test results on website

BNCAP will display the star rating and test results on its website after approval from a monitoring committee set up by the central government. Initially, the crash test will be voluntary, for which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) will be able to send their cars as samples or BNCAP will randomly pick up cars from dealers’ showrooms.

What will be the benefit of India NCAP?

This will give customers the option of choosing safety cars on the basis of star-rating. Along with this, fair competition among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) will also be encouraged for manufacturing safe vehicles in the country.

The new system will also help local car manufactures. They will be able to get their vehicles tested at India’s in-house testing service. Also they will not need to send their cars abroad for crash test and star rating, which is very expensive.

Getting more stars in the rating means better safety

Cars that get the lowest rating or star in the NCAP test are not considered safe at the time of an accident. At present, the rules of crash test of cars in India are fixed. Tested cars are given a 0 to 5 star rating. In the BNCAP crash test, the car will be given a safety rating based on Adult Occupant Protection (AOP), Child Occupant Protection (COP) and Safety Assist Technologies (SAT).