As of July 1, 2019, all cars that are manufactured in India must come equipped with advanced safety features, says a Times of India report. According to the report, cars that are manufactured after July 2019 will have to be equipped with features like - airbags, reverse parking sensor, an alert system when the car goes beyond 80 kmph, seatbelt reminders, and even a manual override over the central locking system for emergencies. Apparently, the Ministry of Road and Transport has approved already approved the proposal and timeline and an official announcement is expected soon.
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While a lot of manufacturers have been offering airbags and reverse parking sensors even in entry-level cars, the features are only available as either an optional extra or in the top-end variant. With the implementation of this new rule, these safety features will be standard across all variants and for cars of every segment. Right now, safety features of these standards are only offered in premium and luxury cars.
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As mentioned before, in addition to airbags and seatbelt reminder, the new cars will also come with a speed monitoring system that will alert the driver on the increasing speed of the cars. It will give a sharper audio alert with the speed crosses 80 kmph mark. The alert will become sharper at 100 kmph and above 120 kmph it will become go on non-stop. In 2016, speeding alone accounted for nearly 74,000 of the 1.51 lakh deaths in road accidents, which is why such a feature is really important. As for the manual override system, it can be used in the event of when the central locking system becomes dysfunctional and the occupants are trapped inside the car. Similarly, the parking sensors will alert the driver if there is an object very close to the car while taking the car in reverse.
Interestingly, cars in several global markets already come with these features as a standard offering and in India, most of these features are still considered as premium features. We are glad to see that the Indian government is finally taking such strong measures to ensure occupant safety in cars and pedestrian safety as well. It's being said that Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has already approved the move, we still await an official announcement from the Ministry of Road and Transport.
Source: TOI
