Bharat New Car Assessment Programme

Why in news?

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has rolled out an indigenous star-rating system for crash testing cars called the Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (NCAP), the rating system will be voluntary and will come into effect from October 1, 2023.
• Under the new system, vehicles will be assigned between one to five stars indicating their safety in a collision.

About Bharat New Car Assessment Programme:

• It is a testing protocol, wherein automobiles in India shall be accorded Star Ratings based upon their performance in crash tests.
• Under the Bharat NCAP, cars voluntarily nominated by automobile manufacturers will be crash tested as per protocols laid down in the soon-to-be-published Automotive Industry Standard 197.
• The testing protocols adopted by the Bharat NCAP are modelled on the Global NCAP.
• While India has mandatory crash test norms for cars, the Bharat NCAP rating will be of superior standard and will be aligned with global crash-test protocols.
• Unlike in other countries where the NCAP are carried out by non-government entities, there will be a Bharat NCAP Authority in India. The authority will also host the safety ratings of all new car models on a website for public knowledge.
• The objective is to help consumers make an informed decision before purchasing a car, thereby spurring demand for safer cars.

Applicability:

• The programme is applicable to passenger vehicles with not more than eight seats in addition to the driver’s seat with gross vehicle weight not exceeding 3,500 kgs.
• Only the base model of a particular variant will be tested.

Need of Bharat NCAP:

• India sees nearly 1.5 lakh road fatalities in a year, accounting for 10% of deaths due to road crashes globally with only 1% of the world’s vehicles.
• According to a World Bank study, road crashes are estimated to cost the Indian economy between 5 to 7% of GDP a year.

Global New Car Assessment Programme (Global NCAP):

• It is a major project of the Towards Zero Foundation which is a United Kingdom registered charity.
• It serves as a platform for cooperation among new car assessment programmes worldwide and promotes the universal adoption of the United Nations (UN) most important motor vehicle safety standards worldwide.
• Global NCAP has adopted a Road Map for Safer Vehicles 2020 which provides a recommended timetable for UN Member States to apply the most important UN vehicle safety regulations.

PRACTICE QUESTION:

Consider the following statements regarding ‘Bharat New Car Assessment Programme’:

1. It is a mandatory crash testing norms for all automobile manufacturers

2. The programme is not applicable to passenger vehicles

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 only

(b) 2 only

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Answer