[Rajeevraj]

Was surprised to read this statement from Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete. In a written reply to Look Sabha, he said that Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has informed that "at present government does not have any proposal to mandate provision of air bags in every passenger car."

This is a surprise. I thought it was already decided. The article also says rules have been amended to increase safety of occupants in the event of a collision. How can safety be enhanced without measures like airbags?

The government has no proposal to make air bags mandatory in all cars at present but rules have been amended to enhance safety of occupants in frontal collisions for all new models from October 2017, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has informed that "at present government does not have any proposal to mandate provision of air bags in every passenger car," Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Minister Anant Geete said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

He, however, added that the MoRTH, which administers Central Motor Vehicles Act, 1988/Central Motor Vehicles Rule 1989, has mandated certain safety provisions.

These provisions include protection of occupants in the event of an offset frontal collision and requirements for behaviour of steering mechanism in a head-on collision, applicable for all new models from October 1, 2017 and all models from October 1, 2019.

Edit: Just read this part. " Industry experts said in other parts of the world too government does not mandate a technology and it is up to the automobile companies to come up with measures to meet the safety norms. However, under the current available technology it is not possible to meet the frontal crash test norms without air bags."

Not a great idea to leave it upto the manufacturers in a country like India.

Source: ETAuto

[vin_b]

All car models to mandatorily have airbags, ABS & speed-warning system from October 2018

Automakers will have to provide airbags, antilock braking (ABS) and speed warning systems as standard equipment in all cars from October 2018 as the government pushes to increase road safety.

India has among the highest motoring accident rates in the world and part of this stems from carmakers producing vehicles without safety features for price-conscious buyers.

The notification to this effect is expected to be issued soon by the road transport and highways ministry also ..

"Airbags and ABS will be standard features in all car models being sold in India from October 2018," a senior transport ministry official told ET.

"Automakers are already providing them in some models, we'll ask them to add these to their basic models as well."

[4x4addict]

I am sure manufacturers will fight it tooth and nail. They prefer keyless entry, auto wipers, auto headlamps, etc to Air Bags and ABS ...

[RavenAvi]

The new passenger vehicle safety norms in India, due to kick in with the Bharat New Vehicle Safety Assessment Programme (BNVSAP), could lead up to the development of an all-new market - car airbags!

According to a report by the Investment and Credit Rating Agency Limited (ICRA), India's airbag market is expected to swell to Rs 1,900-2,300 crores by FY2020.

Although the airbag market is dominated by foreign players such as Takata, Autoliv, Toyoda Gosel, etc., at the moment, prospects of such a sizeable growth in the next 5 years has prompted some Indian component manufacturers to enter this field as well.

But the ICRA has predicted that the penetration and value addition of domestic suppliers won't be high in the near-future as their technological capabilities are still limited, as is the scope for backward integration. But once the high import quotient in airbag technology (sensors & inflators) sees manufacturing on a large scale on the domestic front, the costs associated with this equipment could come well down.

“Although the proposed safety standards don’t make airbags mandatory but in order to achieve adequate safety ratings for frontal collision, airbags would become a necessary fitment. We believe this will also open up a sizeable market opportunity (Rs 19-23 billion by FY 2020) for airbag suppliers as its penetration in PVs could increase exponentially from approximately 30-35% (at present) to nearly 90%,” the agency said in its report.

Under the new norms, passenger vehicles will receive star ratings based on how they perform under various crash tests and associated parameters. These norms will come into effect from October 2017 for new models and October 2018/19 for all the existing models.

The import content in airbags currently stands at 60-80% as the key components i.e. inflator and sensors are imported. Developing these locally would require scale and technical capabilities, but once these are installed the economies of scale could even make India a big exporter of safety equipment like airbags to other parts of the world, thus driving the costs down even further.

Autocar Professional

[magtamilan]

Safety is the number priority. The responsibility does not merely end with the government and the manufacturers. It is high time that the general public open their eyes to the grim situation of road safety and impress upon the dealers to show them only safe vehicles, and advise their friends and family to choose safety over style. Kudos to all team bhpians who are actively pursuing this in the larger interest of the public.