Few months back, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) had proposed on making the front passenger airbags mandatory for all passenger vehicles from June 2021. Now, the said draft proposal has been cleared and approved by the Government, and all the new passenger vehicles manufactured on and after 1 April, 2021 should compulsorily be equipped with front passenger airbags.

All the vehicle manufacturers are required to strictly adhere to the new Gazette notification and the equipped airbags shall be as per Automotive Industry Standard (AIS) 145. This provision shall apply only for passenger vehicles built for the Indian market.

While most of the OEMs have already started to offer dual front airbags in most of their models across all the variants, there are a few models which might have to be updated to meet the new rules. The inclusion of the front passenger airbag might also result in a bump in price by Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000, depending upon the model and the variant.

For the existing models which do not offer airbag for the front passenger, the same has to be fitted by 31 August, 2021.