The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI) will set up five inspection and certification test centres in the country on the orders of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. So far, it is decided that Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Telangana will get the ARAI test centres.
The ARAI test centres will carry out emission and safety inspection. Emission inspection includes free acceleration tests (diesel-run vehicles) and idle tests (for petrol, LPG, CNG vehicles). The safety inspection centres, on the other hand, will have automated equipment. These will carry out speedometer, brake tests, suspension, underbody and overbody areas, joint play, headlamps, tail-lamps, side slip and others.
Sources associated with the development say that ARAI will build and handover these test centres to the government, however, its operating authorities haven't been finalised yet. ARAI is known for providing consultancy services to set up optimal sized test centres for government and private organisations. It also undertakes turnkey projects, like establishing greenfield test centres, carrying out audits for these centres, and training motor vehicle inspectors and operators. The association is currently engaged with several organisations for providing these services.
Meanwhile, Rashmi Urdhwareshe, director, ARAI, while giving an update on ARAI’s upcoming 55,000 square metre Chakan facility, said: “Augmentation of ARAI’s facilities will have three centres of excellence – one COE in powertrain, fatigue and materials, and passive safety. This will be done at Chakan. Out of these centres, the building of a passive safety lab and its infrastructure is now ready, and the installation of key equipment for crash testing is in the advanced stage of completion.”
Interestingly, the all-new passive test facility built under National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) at ARAI, Chakan, has equipment for carrying out crash tests such as full frontal, offset frontal, side, side pole and rear impact as per Automatic Identification Systems, Indian Standard (AIS), ECE regulations, Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) requirements. It also has a static rollover test facility, a full-fledged dummy calibration facility, an electric AC drive crash test system, with a payload capacity of 3,500kg and propelling speed of 80kph, and many others.
Of these upcoming test centres, Nashik is most likely to be the chosen location for Maharashtra, while a centre might come up on the Railmagra-Udaipur highway in Rajasthan. Locations for the remaining states haven't been decided yet.
AMIT PANDAY
Rivan RS 
Viraaj Bhatnagar
Uday Singh
Suraj Viswanathan
