National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project's (NATRiP) seven automotive design and testing centres, being set up as per best global standards, will be fully operational by December 2016.
"As the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has made it mandatory for vehicle manufactures in the country, especially cars, for complying with best international standards for safety of driver and passengers and set October 2017 deadline for new vehicles, NATRiP's centres will be all ready by the year-end," said NATRiP CEO Sanjay Bandopadhyay.
Addressing a workshop here, Bandopadhyay said the infotronics laboratory and crash testing labs will be operational by June this year and the high-speed testing track will come up in two years.
He was speaking at a two-day seminar on 'Road safety - Time for action' jointly organised by MoRTH and International Road Federation (IRF) as part of the ongoing National Road Safety Week , which concluded here today.
"The seven facilities coming up at Manesar, Bengaluru, Rae Bareli, Silchar, Indore, Pune and Chennai under NATRiP are the best in the world for carrying out all safety tests including frontal and side crash test for vehicles," he said.
With the focus now shifting on to safer vehicles and test facilities becoming operational, the automobile manufacturers in the country will get best of the testing facilities in the country itself, he added.
He further said that with new testing facilities and new safety norms coming, vehicles will become safer and the country will be able to formulate new norms for crash test, emissions and other safety equipment like brakes, stability, noise and electro-magnetic radiations.
Ministry of Road Transport has set October 2017 as the deadline for mandatory crash test for new models and October 2019 for existing cars, he said, adding that the high speed testing track is being developed at Indore centre and will be fully operational within next couple of years.
Speaking on the occasion, Indian Road Federation (IRF) chief K K Kapila said that the automobile industry should rise to the occasion.
"When they can export safe cars to other countries, why can't they do so for our customers. They should market their safety features for higher sale of products," he said.
