India’s vehicle safety testing programme `Bharat NCAP’ is now operational

Government of India's vehicle safety assessment programme, Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (BNCAP) has completed its first round of crash testing and results are expected this week or by the end of this month. 

This will help buyers make a more informed purchase decision. At present, most new vehicle models come without a crash test as the safety-rating and crash tests are conducted by outside agencies. 

Bharat NCAP tests were supposed to begin on 15 October, but were pushed back to 15 December due to the busy holiday season.

Testing agencies have now completed the crash tests and submitted their result evaluations. It is up to the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT), Pune, the programme manager for the vehicle assessment programme, to assign the 1-5 star ratings to the vehicles that have undergone the necessary tests.

Under Bharat NCAP, the base variant of a vehicle model is  evaluated for three safety domains -- adult occupant protection, child occupant protection and technology inputs that ensure safety of the occupant and the vehicle.

The vehicles are subjected to a series of crash tests, including an offset deformable barrier frontal impact test at 64 kmph, a side impact test at 50 kmph, and a pole side impact test at 29 kmph. Star ratings of 1 to 5 are awarded on the basis of an evaluation of the impact of the crash tests on the dummy occupant and the vehicle.

The cost of Bharat NCAP would be around Rs60 lakh per vehicle against Rs2.50 crore charged by international testing agency, according to minister of transport and highways Nitin Gadkari. 

This would make vehicle testing cheaper for Indian auto makers while also speeding up the process of safety assessment.