India Launches Bharat NCAP: Indigenous Car Safety Ratings by Oct 1

The India New Car Assessment Program (India NCAP or BNCAP) has been launched to crash test cars in the country and give them a safety rating. Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari inaugurated it at a function in Delhi on Tuesday.

From October 1, 2023, the agency will crash test cars on the Automotive Industry Standard (AIS)-197 set in accordance with the Indian environment and give them a safety star rating. Under this program the base variant of the vehicle will be crash-tested. Car and other vehicle manufacturers may provide vehicles for testing as per their wish.

Earlier, foreign agencies Global NCAP (GNCAP) and Latin NCAP (LNCAP) used to test Indian cars according to their norms and give them safety ratings. Their rating does not fit Indian conditions in many ways, so the central government launched its rating system BNCAP.

No foreign agency will decide how safe or unsafe a car running in India is, but an indigenous agency. Union Minister Nitin Gadkari will inaugurate the India Security Agency India New Car Assessment Program (Bharat NCAP or BNCAP) at 11 am today (August 22).

Earlier, foreign agencies Global NCAP (GNCAP) and Latin NCAP (LNCAP) used to test Indian cars according to their norms and give them safety ratings. Who is accused of underrating Indian cars. In ‘India NCAP’, the car will be crash-tested and given a safety rating as per the norms set according to the Indian environment.

Getting 5 Stars Means Better Safety

The NCAP test gives a safety rating between 0 and 5. 0 star means very unsafe i.e. car with 0 star is very bad in terms of safety in case of accident. At the same time, a car with a 5-star rating is considered safe in the event of an accident.

How to Get Safety Rating

Recently there was news that the Road Transport Ministry has set criteria for crash testing cars in the country and given them a safety rating. In the BNCAP crash test, the car will be given a safety rating based on Adult Occupant Protection (AOP), Child Occupant Protection (COP) and Safety Assist Technologies (SAT).

Three Dimensions of Safety Rating in Crash-Tests

• The Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) rating measures how safe the passenger and driver are when the car is hit from the front and side.
• The Child Occupant Protection (COP) rating measures how safe a car’s children are in frontal and side collisions.
• What is the level of security technology? That is, whether the car has standard safety features as per government regulations and whether it functions properly at the time of an accident.

Crash Test Procedure

• For this, human-like dummies are used. During the test, the vehicle is hit with a hard object at a fixed speed.
• Meanwhile 4 to 5 dummies are used in the car. There is a baby dummy on the back seat. It is fixed on the child safety seat.
• A crash test looks at whether the airbags work or not. How much damage did the dummy suffer? How well do the car’s safety features work? Based on all these the rating is given.

What Will Be the Benefit of India NCAP?

It will give customers an option to choose a safety car based on star-rating. This will also encourage fair competition among Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for manufacturing safer vehicles in the country.

The new system will also help local car manufacturers. They can get their vehicles tested at India’s in-house testing service. Also, they don’t have to send their cars abroad for crash tests and star ratings, which are very expensive.

BNCAP will display the star rating and test results on its website after the approval of the monitoring committee constituted by the central government . Initially, crash tests will be voluntary, for which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) can send their cars as samples or randomly select cars from BNCAP dealers’ showrooms.

BNCAP Approved in June-2022

Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari approved the draft GSR notification to launch BNCAP in June-2022. The NCAP testing protocol in India will be similar to the global NCAP crash test protocol. The crash test will take into account the existing Indian norms.

Important Safety Features of the Car

There are many safety features to make the car safe. It mainly includes Airbags, Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC), Vehicle Stability Management (VSM), Hill Assist Control (HAC), Child Seat Anchors (ISOFIX), Anti Lock Brake System (ABS), Electronic Brake Distribution (EBD), Seat Belt Pretensioner & Reminder (Driver+Passenger), Parking Assist – Reverse Parking Sensors, Impact Sensing Auto Door Unlock, Speed ​​Sensing Auto Door Lock, Emergency Stop Signal (ESS), Rear Camera with Display On, Audio, Day Time running lights, rear defogger and wiper, auto door lock/unlock and rear camera.