Govt mulls making airbags mandatory in all vehicles

Government plans to make it mandatory for auto companies to provide rear view sensors or backup cameras, speed warning systems, airbags and child pedestrian system in all new vehicles from October 2017.

The Road Transport and Highways Ministry in a draft notification has said that vehicles should be fitted with airbags, speed alert systems to warn if the speed exceeds 80 km per hour.

It has also sought suggestions including objections from automakers on it.

Also, the government plans to set up its own safety authority, the Bharat National Car Assessment Programme (NCAP), which will rate vehicles on safety.

At present even though cars come equipped with rear view mirrors which are adequate for looking at vehicles behind, they are inadequate in detecting small children or objects close to the ground, falling in car's blind spot.

A Road Transport and Highways Ministry official had earlier said that to rectify this, "the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) will soon issue a notification to make rear view sensors mandatory in all vehicles".

More than 50,000 fatal accidents take place in the country due to over-speeding and hence the government is planning to make audio warnings mandatory in vehicles.

"Government is also planning to make audio warning mandatory in vehicles on similar lines of seat belt wearing sign. At the speed of 80 km/hr small beep sound warning will come and after the speed of 90 km/hr a continuous beep will alert the speeding driver," the official has earlier said.