NCAP ratings for Indian cars soon

The Road Transport Ministryhas started the process of setting standards for a New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP). Similar to the Euro NCAP, which is a European car safety performance assessment programme based in Brussels (Belgium), the Indian regulatory body will conduct complete crash test of all new cars launched here.

The NCAP is a vehicle safety rating system which publishes safety reports of cars giving them a 'star rating' out of five. The ratings are awarded based on the performance of the vehicles in an array of crash tests which includes front, side and pole impacts as well as pedestrians.

To carry out such safety tests, the National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) is setting up a cutting-edge facility under the aegis of the Centre of Excellence for Passive Safety at GARC-Chennai along with two other facilities at iCAT and ARAI. All new samples of vehicles will have to undergo the crash tests to ensure that they are within safe margins. The cars will also get certification for their structural strength. Currently, the cars sold in India only undergo front and rear crash tests.

The EU requires all new cars to pass the safety tests before they are sold. United States has its own NCAP, which was the first of its kind, Australia and New Zealand have ANCAP, Latin America has the Latin NCAP, China has C-NCAP among others.

Source : TOI