Govt mandates dual air bags in new models from April 1

The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a notification mandating dual airbags in vehicles for the safety of passengers.

Now new models will have to adhere to this norm from April 1, 2021, while for the existing ones, the compliance date is August 31.

On average, this will impact the vehicle prices in the range of Rs 5,000-7,000.

Earlier on December 29, 2020, the government had said that it had proposed to make dual front airbags mandatory for new models from April 1, 2021, and for the existing cars from June 1, 2021. The MoRTH had put out a draft notification regarding this for public consultation.

"To boost passenger safety, the MoRTH proposes to make it mandatory that an airbag be provided for the passenger seated on the front seat of a vehicle, next to the driver," the ministry had said.

A draft notification, dated December 28, 2020, to this effect was published on the ministry's website, soliciting comments or suggestions from all stakeholders. It asked the stakeholders to email their suggestions or comments at comments-morth@gov.in within 30 days from the date of the notification.

An airbag is a kind of bag designed to inflate extremely quickly and then deflate during a collision. In the event of any accident, the front passenger airbag will bring about a better chance of his/her survival.

Since July 2019, airbags were made mandatory for the driver side of a vehicle.

The latest mandate is for all existing models in the M1 category — passenger motor vehicles having not more than eight seats in addition to the drivers.

Provisions like Electronic Stability Control and Autonomous Emergency Braking are also being considered by the government as standard features of vehicles from 2022-2023. This will make the safety features of Indian cars at par with their global counterparts.