Indian Car Safety Norms

In a bid to make Indian car safety norms better, the government has proposed to make dual front airbags standard on all passenger cars from 1st April 2021.

A draft amendment regarding the modified safety norms has been uploaded on the website of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The 1st April 2021 timeline however, is only for new models, having not more than 8 seats for passengers in addition to the driver’s seat, that come under the M1 category.

All existing cars that come under the M1 category, on the other hand, will have to comply with the regulation from 1st June 2021 onwards. The government had already mandated driver’s side airbag in all cars from 1st July 2019.

This is a welcome move and will go a long way in increasing the chances of survival of car passengers when the vehicle they travel in is involved in an accident.

The state of other points mentioned in the earlier draft dated 15th December 2020 about implementing front passenger safety belt reminder, manual override for central locking system and reverse parking alert system, is not known.

Nonetheless, when the amended Indian car safety norms come into effect, the most affordable cars on sale in the market will also come with dual front airbags.

Of course, prices of such models might increase owing to the addition of one more airbag, but it is a price people should be willing to pay.