New Delhi: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) on Saturday passed a mandate to make a range of safety features standard on all cars sold in the country.

The Ministry of road transport has proposed to make the front airbags (driver and passenger) compulsory in India. The notification read, "Ministry has issued Gazette notification regarding mandatory provision of an airbag for passenger seated on front seat of a vehicle, next to driver. This has been mandated as an important safety feature & is also based on suggestions of Supreme Court Committee on Road Safety."

The law ministry has accepted this proposal and has given a nod for front airbags as a standard fitment. As of now, only driver's seat airbags was mandatory for all passenger vehicles in the country. The airbags will be mandatory from April 1, this year in the country. The final notification on the front airbags will be declares by the Ministry of Roads and Transport in upcoming days.

In December 2020, the government had asked public comment on a proposal to make airbags compulsory for the front passenger in all cars from 2021, in a move that could raise prices for car manufacturers slowly seeing a revival in demand.

Passenger safety is an important topic in the country and it needs to be dealt with top priority. The number of accidents and deaths in accidents is a huge problem and airbags are a step in minimising them.