ABS compulsory from April

The government of India has made it mandatory for all new CV models to have anti-lock braking system (ABS) from April 2015. While to-belaunched vehicles need to incorporate the feature by next fiscal, manufacturers will get a six month period to fit ABS on new vehicles sold under existing models. ABS is an important safety feature that controls the vehicle during emergency braking at high speeds by preventing the wheels from locking up and thus preventing uncontrolled skidding. Therefore, ABS is mandatory for passenger cars and commercial vehicles sold in developed markets. In India, ABS has not been made compulsory in passenger vehicles, yet most manufacturers offer it as an optional feature. In trucks and buses however, ABS is offered only on high-end models. The cost of ABS fitment in a truck can vary from Rs.50,000- 75,000 for a manufacturer, thereby bumping up the incremental cost to Rs. 1 lakh for the end customer. Experts opine that the compulsory introduction of ABS comes not a day too soon. A whopping 1.42 people perished in road accidents in 2012 – 30 percent of these accidents have involved commercial vehicles. What is instructive to note is that 77 percent of these accidents were on account of collision, loss of control and lane departure. Factoring these worrying trends, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is mulling the implementation of devices like traction control, heads up displays and air bags.