Nitin Gadkari mandates the sale of all new vehicles with 6 airbags as standard
Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways, has declared that all new automobiles sold in India would soon come standard with 6 airbags.
In the month of January, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had passed a draft notification to make six airbags mandatory in cars with a passenger capacity of eight people. According to the notice, this regulation will take effect on October 1, 2022, for all new automobiles.
M1 category cars (those that seat up to eight passengers and weigh less than 3.5 tonnes) made after October 1, 2022, would be equipped with two front side airbags and two curtain airbags, according to a proposed notification dated January 14, 2022.
For a number of reasons, the automobile manufacturers reacted with predictable scepticism to the news. The most apparent disadvantage of the new law would be the additional costs, which would invariably increase the price of the vehicle by a considerable amount. This also means that base variants of each car too will creep into the unaffordable space, decreasing its demand.
This new regulation will however help many cars get a decent Global NCAP score and pass the safety test. No formal document has been produced by the MoRTH in response to Gadkari's Lok Sabha declaration. The finer points of the new legislation are still being ironed out, but we anticipate it to be revealed soon.
The Kia Carens is a significant outsider in this price bracket, with six airbags standard on all models.
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