Centre will not make six airbags mandatory for cars: Nitin Gadkari

The Centre won’t make six airbags necessary for automobiles, Union Highway Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari mentioned on Wednesday, as reported by information company PTI.

“We do not need to make six airbags rule for automobiles necessary,” Gadkari mentioned at an occasion in New Delhi. Airbags for each entrance seats are necessary in automobiles manufactured on and after April 1, 2021.

In September 2022, the Ministry of Highway Transport and Highways (MoRTH) mentioned that six airbags will probably be necessary for automobiles in India from October 1. The Centre had then mentioned that with a view to improve the protection of occupants of a motorized vehicle, it has been determined to boost security options by amending the Central Motors Automobiles Guidelines (CMVR), 1989.

An airbag is a car occupant-restraint system which interferes between the driving force and the car’s dashboard throughout a collision, thereby stopping critical accidents.

On social media platform X, then often called Twitter, Gadkari had posted, “Contemplating the worldwide provide chain constraints being confronted by the auto business and its affect on the macroeconomic situation, it has been determined to implement the proposal mandating a minimal of 6 Airbags in Passenger Automobiles (M-1 Class) w.e.f 01st October 2023.”

The step was introduced after the previous chairman of Tata Group Cyrus Mistry died in a street accident on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad freeway in Palghar on September 4, 2022. 

Mistry and his buddy Jahangir Pandole died on the spot, whereas the opposite two passengers – gynaecologist Anahita Pandole and her husband Darius Pandole – suffered main accidents and had been rushed to a hospital. Anahita Pandole was driving the automobile.

The police mentioned that the airbags within the entrance seats deployed however the ones within the rear didn’t come out because the seatbelts weren’t engaged.