Union Heavy Industries & Public Enterprises Minister Shri Anant G. Geete today formally inaugurated the test track facility develop by Global Automotive Research centre (GARC) at Oragadam, Chennai.  The same has been notified to issue certificates under CMVR 1989. The Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) Chennai is a body working under the NATRiP (National Automotive Testing & R&D Infra Project). On this occasion Shri Babul Supriyo, Union Minister of State HI&PE, Shri. M.C. Sampath Minister for Industries, Government of TN, Shri KN Ramachandran, Member of Parliament. Mr. K. Palani, MLA from Sriperumbudur constituency, officials from the Ministry of HI&PE and NATRIP and other dignitaries from industry, Institution and academia were also present.

Speaking on this occasion Shri Geete said the Indian Automotive Sector plays a very important role in country’s manufacturing sector and likely to contribute by 12 percent in the country’s GDP over the next decade. Last year, the Government of India in collaboration with Indian Automotive Industry has raised the curtain from Automotive Mission Plan 2016-26. At present, the Indian auto industry is contributing by approximately 7.1 percent in the country’s total GDP. Recently, the India’s two wheeler industry has become the largest market in the world after replacing China. These days, the way technology is evolving, the Government of India is also looking forward to adopt new and different pathways to promote clean, safe, cheap and futuristic mobility services. This will help in creating new jobs both in research, development and manufacturing sector. As per the recent report of NITI Aayog on Transformative Mobility Solutions for All, India can reduce it energy demand by 64 percent and carbon emissions by 37 percent with the help of connected, shared and electric passenger mobility across the country.

The Minister said currently, the Government is also promoting the use of electric vehicles under FAME India Scheme, as it would help the Government to reduce the dependency on oil import. The National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRIP) will play a crucial role to achieve the goals set by Government in the automotive sector under various initiative like BNVSAP, up-coming BS VI Emission norms, Make in India initiative, Skill India, Minimum Government Maximum Governance etc. in coming years.

He said NATRIP is the largest and one of the most significant initiative of the Government of India in the Automotive sector so far and represents a unique joining of hands between the Government of India, a number of State Governments and Indian Automotive Industry to create a state of the art Testing, Validation and R&D infrastructure in the country.

The Project aims at creating core global competencies in Automotive sector in India and facilitate seamless integration of Indian Automotive industry with the world as also to position the country prominently on the global automotive map, Shri Geete added.

He said the Global Automotive Research Centre (GARC) is one of the biggest test centre established by Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises under NATRIP which is spread over 304 acres of land having the research & development laboratories and test tracks at one location.

The GARC has full-fledged homologation test facilities including the Test Tracks to certify all categories of vehicles, systems and components as per national and international standards.

This centre is surrounded by major automobile manufacturers like Hyundai, Daimler, Renault, Nissan, Ford, BMW, Mitsubishi and many component manufacturers. Recently, Government of India has notified GARC as one of the authorized test agency for Type Approval and Homologation Testing under Rule No.126 of CMVR.

The Minister express the hope that homologation facilities will help the manufacturer to save their cost to test their product elsewhere in the country or abroad for both domestic and international market. He said it is evident from the construction works that these test tracks are of global standards. He express confidence that these facilities will attract many more major players from the automotive industry to setup their facilities in the State of Tamil Nadu.

GARC-Chennai with an overall investment of Rs. 963 Cr. is one such and largest endeavour under NATRiP banner.

GARC is one of the six facilities being developed under NATRiP (National automotive Testing and Infrastructure Project) under Department of Heavy Industry and Public Enterprises, Government of India. GARC has a total of 304 Acres of land where it houses all other automotive test related facilities and out of that the test track covers ¾th of the total land area. It has 5 different types of test track namely high speed track (HST), gradient or hill track, External noise track (ENT), Braking surface track (BST) & steering pad. GARC will have Steering Pad Track, External Noise Test Tracks, Hill Test Tracks with various gradients, ABS test tracks with different friction surfaces and the High Speed test track of 4.5kms length for homologation activities. The total cost of Test tracks project being 193.25 Crore.

GARC located in southern auto-cluster of the country is now notified under the Central Motor Vehicle Rules, 1989 to issue test certificates for homologation. The facilities are expected to be used by the automotive OEMs and component manufacturers for homologation and R&D. The commissioning of this facility is expected to encourage effects to towards “made India” and invite greater investments in the automotive and automotive component sector.

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ST/IA