ABS mandatory for commercial vehicles

For commercial vehicles manufactured from April 2015, the government of India has made ABS as a mandatory safety feature on all models. Manufacturers will find it easy for the variants which were going to be developed all new for the next fiscal, but for the rest which were going to be carried forward, manufacturers will have to modify existing models to accommodate the ABS module within a couple of months.

The ABS module is expected to cost anything between Rs. 50,000 – Rs. 75,000 depending on the type of commercial vehicle. Some of the manufacturers do offer ABS as an optional safety feature currently, but we can assume that those opting for ABS would be very, very few.

Making safety features mandatory is a welcome move as this would reduce the number of accidents commercial vehicles get involved in because of lost control, or locking of brakes etc. India records the highest number of road accidents every year, and 30% of the 5 lakh road accidents reported in 2012 involved trucks, buses and other heavy vehicles.

Let’s wait and watch when will the government show the same amount of concern for passenger car owners and demand ABS to be a standard feature.

Source: ET Auto