On 14 January 2022 the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) announced new airbag requirements on class M1 vehicles. Initially, side airbags should be installed in vehicles launched in India from 1 October 2022. However, the date of this requirement was postponed by one year at the end of 2022 to 1 October 2023 .
That the requirement has been postponed is not surprising. The Indian authorities often issue draft rules (as they did here) to give industry time to comment. It is not uncommon for the final regulations to be very different from the original drafts, as the needs of the manufacturers have been incorporated.
Regardless, however, vehicle manufacturers will have to deal with this, as airbags are currently required to be BIS standards will be issued with the Type Approval Certificate of AIS certification. I.e. the airbags must be tested in India according to the AIS099 standard and the corresponding certificatemust be provided to the vehicle manufacturers.
If you have any questions about these or other points or would like a copy of a standard, please contact us at any time. Our long-standing contacts with all relevant Indian authorities allow us to respond quickly and we will be happy to support you in any certification project.
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