Keypoints:
- Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways said that the new rule will require all new vehicles to have dual front airbags as standard fitment from April 1, 2021.
- Existing vehicles will be required to be sold with dual airbags from August 31, 2021.
- On Friday, the government announced its decision to make the passenger side airbag mandatory in new cars.
The transport ministry issued a draft notification in which the Centre plans to implement this norm for all new models of cars which are manufactured from April 1, 2021, onwards. On Tuesday,Union Road transports and Highway ministry proposed making it compulsory for cars to carry airbags for the passenger side of the front seats.
The draft notification issued by the Transport Ministry read, “Vehicles manufactured on and after 1st Day of April 2021, in the case of new models, and 1st day of June 2021, in the case of existing models, shall be fitted with airbag for the person occupying the front seat, other than the driver. The requirement for such airbag shall be as per AIS 145…under the Bureau of Indian Standards act, 2016”.
Currently, only the airbag of drivers seat is mandatory for all cars.However, this leaves the passenger in the front seat completely vulnerable to severe injury or even death in case of accidents as they are not protected by the airbag.
Further, he government also added that the mandate was an important safety feature and is also based on the suggestions of the Supreme Court Committee on road safety. The need for dual front airbags has been long advocated by the Centre for road safety, and will be extremely beneficial on entry-level cars that often miss out on the safety feature on the base trims. In the notification, the Centre also said that the airbag will need to meet the AIS 145 standard under the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) specifications.
In December,the Centre sought public comment on a proposal to make airbags mandatory for the front passenger in all cars from this year, in a move that could raise costs for automakers slowly seeing a revival in demand.
