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| National auto design centres aim big |
| Yogima Seth Sharma / New Delhi Apr 30, 2010, 14:35 IST |
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The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP) will be up and running in six out of the seven cities by September 2011.
“While the Pune, Ahmednagar and Manesar centres have started operations, the remaining centres are expected to be functional by September, 2011. The only centre that could be delayed is the off-road vehicle testing and accident data analysis centre at Rae Bareilly. The high-speed test tracks at Indore could also take some more time to complete,” said a ministry official.
The Ministry of heavy industries and public enterprises had allocated Rs 1,718 crore in 2005 to build seven centres under NATRiP, to provide world-class infrastructure for research, testing, certification and homologation of vehicles in three major auto hubs across the country.
The intiative includes setting up of five greenfield centres — the iCAT, Manesar (Rs 440 crore), G-ARC, Chennai (Rs 470 crore), NATRAX, Indore (Rs 427 crore), Silchar Project (Rs 43.36 crore), Rae Bareilly Centre (Rs 86 crore) — and upgrading two existing ones — the ARAI, Pune (Rs 210 crore) and VRDE, Ahmednagar (Rs 42 crore).
The three centres that have started operations are not adequate to meet the demands of the auto sector, forcing vehicle manufacturers to wait for months before they can get their new products tested and certified, resulting in major losses in terms of sales.
However, industry insiders feel, once all the testing centres are up and running, they would attract vehicle makers in south east Asia because of the up-to-date testing facilities and a cheaper price tag. These centres will also be authorised to certify new products for the international markets, as they have been recognised by the Vehicle Type Approval (VCA) authority of UK and TUV of Germany as world-class facilities.
With all major global car manufacturers setting up their bases in India for small cars, the government expects higher revenues from the centres.
“Today domestic companies are going abroad for testing and homologation of their vehicles but once NATRiP centres are operational, we will have revenues worth Rs 400-500 crore as compared to just Rs 120 crore now. We hope more and more OEMs from South-East Asian countries will come to India,” said Ambuj Sharma, joint secretary of the Ministry.
Rajesh Singh, CEO and project director of NATRiP, echoed his views. “Testing and homologation services in India are 30 per cent cheaper than anywhere else in the world. Moreover, as major OEMs are developing their small cars in India, both for the domestic market as well as for exports, these testing centres will speed up the entire process.”
According to Singh, NATRiP has floated tenders of Rs 1,500 crore. Out of this, tenders of Rs 1,200 crore have been finalised for execution but the total expenditure so far has been Rs 600 crore. Another Rs 600 crore expenditure is in the pipeline.
NATRiP is still to acquire land for the Rae Bareilly centre. “After failing to get land from the UP government despite negotiations for nearly four years, we are now in talks with SAIL to get 90 acres of their Malvika Steel Plant land in Jagdishpur on lease and hope to finalise the deal by July this year,” Singh added.
“Consequently, the off-road vehicle testing and accident data analysis centre that was planned for Rae Bareilly will take at least 24 months from the date of land availability for the completion of the project. This means the project would be operational not before December 2012.”
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