A number of vehicle manufacturers and government departments participated at annual convention of the Society for Automotive Fitness & Environment (SAFE), a SIAM initiative, held in Bangalore recently.
14 May 2014 | 3514 Views | By Jaishankar Jayaramiah
A number of vehicle manufacturers and government departments participated at annual convention of the Society for Automotive Fitness & Environment (SAFE), a SIAM initiative, held in Bangalore recently. They stressed the importance of high-tech-driven vehicles in order to avoid road accidents and also reduce pollution caused by automobiles.
Various ...
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A number of vehicle manufacturers and government departments participated at annual convention of the Society for Automotive Fitness & Environment (SAFE), a SIAM initiative, held in Bangalore recently. They stressed the importance of high-tech-driven vehicles in order to avoid road accidents and also reduce pollution caused by automobiles.
Various speakers at the convention with the theme of ‘Road Safety: Bringing Policy & Practice Together’ registered their concern over the lack of comprehensive safety features in Indian vehicles as well as loopholes in motor vehicle laws.
Navin Paul, executive vice-president of Bosch India, said the government should consider making the Antilock Braking System (ABS) mandatory in Indian vehicles. At present, the government has asked heavy commercial vehicle makers to provide ABS in their products, but there is no specific time frame for the OEMs to achieve this goal. ABS should be made a compulsory parameter in four- and two- wheelers too in India, added Paul.
Bosch has been producing ABS and supplying to a few four-wheeler OEMs in India. “Around 20 percent of all car accidents with fatalities on Indian highways could be avoided by a car equipped with ABS. This means every fifth car accident can be altogether avoided by intervention of car ABS,” said Paul.
Ambuj Sharma, additional secretary, Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, said the vehicle population is expanding at a rapid pace in India in recent years and the government has been taking various steps to address safety and pollution issues in this connection.
Given that most OEMs in India are backed by companies abroad, he said these companies can manufacture the world’s most advanced vehicles in the country. For testing vehicles, he said the Union government is setting up state-of-the-art testing and homologation facilities in seven locations across India at a combined cost of $ 600 million (Rs 3,600 crore) under the National Automotive Testing R&D infrastructure project. Work on the upcoming centre in Chennai is nearing completion and around 80 percent of the overall project will be over by end- December 2014. OEMs can use these facilities to test vehicle dynamics, safety parameters, noise, emission, powertrain and carry out other automotive testing.
The centre in Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh, which is fully dedicated to accident data analysis, has started functioning and initiated a pilot project in a 100km stretch in Rajasthan.
Petter Bergman, director of Volvo Buses, said its products including commercial vehicles are rich in safety aspects. When Volvo entered India 15 years ago, he said the company found it difficult to sells its trucks and buses based on safety features. But in the last decade awareness about vehicle safety features has increased and Volvo products have received a good response in the domestic market. He also talked about a few safety features like reverse camera, Alcolock, tachograph (for analyzing driving speed and duration), electronic speed limiting function and driver drowsiness tracking system.
Dr Lavanya Wadgaonkar, head (Communication & CSR), Nissan Motor India, said her company has taken the initiative to spread awareness among people to undertake safe driving habits. Under Nissan Safety Driving Forum (NSDF), she said the company has been conducting awareness camps in cities across the country.
She said demonstration kits of simulators are being showcased in commercial malls for people to experience safe driving practices to recognize the usefulness of airbags, seatbelts and other safety systems in Nissan vehicles.
“In the past two years we have completed this exercise in nine cities and these camps will cover another five cities this year,” Dr Wadgaonkar said.
Vikram S Kirloskar, president, SIAM and vice-chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor, said, “On the safety front, when we had established SAFE in 1999, the original idea was that SAFE would operate Inspection and Maintenance Centers (I&M) to certify the roadworthiness of vehicles.”
That objective of SAFE is now being fulfilled by SIAM which is currently in the process of establishing a four-lane I&M Center in Madhya Pradesh, near the Maharashtra border. This I&M Center, which would be able to inspect and certify up to 50,000 vehicles annually, is a model for 10 other centres being planned for different states over the coming years by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH). This, hopefully, will mark the beginning of a rigorous implementation of the I&M regime in India that would also pave the way for a vehicle retirement policy.