BT MindRush: Bharat-NCAP should not be mandatory, says Maruti veteran RC Bhargava

Maruti Suzuki has opposed making the Bharat-NCAP norms mandatory for all cars sold in the country. Hours after Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari approved the new car assessment program -- known as Bharat NCAP (or New Car Assessment Program) -- Maruti Suzuki Chairman RC Bhargava told Business Today in an exclusive interaction that he had a different view on the subject.

Speaking during a fireside chat at Business Today MindRush, Bhargava told Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor, Business Today TV that India is a completely different market than the west where tests such as the NCAP are a benchmark.

He added, "We cannot follow the European standards of safety in all our vehicles in India because we can't apply that to two-wheelers. Are we going to leave the two-wheeler owners out of the safety ambit and apply it to only rich people? Surely, we should look at what can be done to provide better transport for the people who use two-wheelers."

The comments from the doyen of the automobile industry comes at a time when the centre is making a move to align the testing protocol of Bharat-NCAP with Global Crash Test Protocols. According to union minister Nitin Gadkari, "Bharat-NCAP will prove to be a critical instrument in making our automobile industry 'Aatmanirbhar' with the mission of making India the Number 1 automobile hub in the world."

Talking about what can be done to discard old vehicles to avoid accidents on India roads, RC Bhargava said, "Vehicles all over the world, in reasonably developed nations, including Middle-East, cars are subject to periodical inspection and fitness certificate is required before they can continue to run on the road, we don't have that."

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