Speaking at the 58th SIAM Annual convention, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that the central government will be abolishing the mandatory requirement of speed governors for commercial vehicles. Speed governors for all commercial vehicles were first mandated in May 2017, following an order from the Karnataka High Court. The initiative met with criticism from the transportation department, despite having been inducted for better road safety.
Though, the union minister did not reveal any timeline as to when the mandate will be abolished. In the meantime, commercial vehicles will have to continue using the top speed limiting device. This move will also require the Ministry to revise the Central Motor Vehicles Rules abolishing speed governors completely.
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Currently, the speed governor restricts the top speed on buses, and taxis to the speed of 80kmph, while the speed restriction for the trucks is till 60kmph. School busses and three-wheelers have to adhere to a speed limit of 40kmph. In addition to this, Gadkari also said that advanced driver assistance systems will be made compulsory by 2022 in the country. Earlier, the government announced that dual front airbags, ABS and reverse parking sensors will be mandatory for the vehicles to be produced from 2019. The vehicles will also get seatbelt reminder and speed reminder (alerting with beeping sound at 80kmph and later when goes over a speed of 120kmph).