Govt starts allocation for auto testing centres

The auto industry, feeling ignored in Budget 2007 and burdened with the hike in education cess, has at least one reason to cheer - the government has started allocating funds from this year for building state-of-the-art testing and validation centres at seven sites in the country.

National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP), a Rs 1,718 crore project is to be implemented in two phases in different locations in the country.

NATRIP is the largest and one of the most significant initiatives in the country's automotive sector so far. The project has been uniquely structured as it involves partnership among the centre, states and the industry, which together have formed a NATRIP Implementation Society.

While the project was announced earlier, the allocation would begin only from the coming financial year.

Under NATRIP, Indore would have a centre that could have facilities to test and certify vehicles - ranging from two-wheelers and cars to heavy trucks and multi-axle vehicles - on a variety of tracks before their entry in the market.

The site has been envisaged to be large enough to house five Formula One race tracks and a modern crash-testing facility for the first time on Indian soil.