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

The Centre will not make six airbags mandatory for cars, Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday, as reported by news agency PTI.

“We don’t want to make six airbags rule for cars mandatory,” Gadkari said at an event in New Delhi. Airbags for both front seats are mandatory in vehicles manufactured on and after April 1, 2021.

In September 2022, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said that six airbags will be mandatory for cars in India from October 1. The Centre had then said that in order to enhance the safety of occupants of a motor vehicle, it has been decided to enhance safety features by amending the Central Motors Vehicles Rules (CMVR), 1989.

An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system which interferes between the driver and the vehicle’s dashboard during a collision, thereby preventing serious injuries.

On social media platform X, then known as Twitter, Gadkari had posted, “Considering the global supply chain constraints being faced by the auto industry and its impact on the macroeconomic scenario, it has been decided to implement the proposal mandating a minimum of 6 Airbags in Passenger Cars (M-1 Category) w.e.f 01st October 2023.”

The step was announced after the former chairman of Tata Group Cyrus Mistry died in a road accident on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway in Palghar on September 4, 2022. 

Mistry and his friend Jahangir Pandole died on the spot, while the other two passengers – gynaecologist Anahita Pandole and her husband Darius Pandole – suffered major injuries and were rushed to a hospital. Anahita Pandole was driving the car.

The police said that the airbags in the front seats deployed but the ones in the rear did not pop out since the seatbelts were not engaged.