All smalls car will be banned in the state of Assam owing to concerns with passenger safety. In a ruling by the Guwahati high court a decision has been passed to halt sales of cars weighing less than 1500 kg.
“The Centre is directed not to permit the auto manufacturers to release and sell the small four-wheelers with a mass up to 1,500 kg and quadri-cycles without putting them to crash test and emission test,” the court said.
The court cited that the cars are unsafe as they do not comply with the Global New Car Assessment Programme crash standards. The issue of car safety was brought into court by petitioners asking for improvement in car safety to meet the demands of hazardous road conditions in the north-eastern state. The state has higher than average rates of car accidents India.
Close to 140 Models will be seeing a ban which is worrying the automobile companies. The state account for 12% of the overall automobile sales in the north east. Society of Indian Automobile Association (SIAM) is expected to start talks to resolve the ban after the next ruling which expected to pass on August 27. The ruling will decide if the court will withhold the ban or decide to remove it.
All cars sold in India are certificated only after a series of safety test by Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI). The decision has been questioned for its lack of thoughtfulness. Some of the cars banned like the Volkswagen Polo and Ford Focus meet the rigours global NCAAP safety standards. Both Volkswagen Polo and Ford Focus also have an excellent 4 star rating safety rating.
On the contrary some of the cars under the ban like Maruthi Suzuki Alto, Tata Nano and Hyundai i10 have a zero star NCAAP rating.