Maruti Suzuki has applied for Bharat New Car Assessment Programme (Bharat-NCAP) safety ratings for some of its vehicles, a senior government official has said.

Last year, Tata Motors' SUVs Safari and Harrier became the first recipients of the safety rating for adult and child occupant protection as per Bharat-NCAP. The SUVs were given 5-star rating.

In August last year, the government launched Bharat-NCAP, India's very own and independent safety performance evaluation protocol for automobiles.

Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari had earlier said Bharat-NCAP is benchmarked to the best-in-class global standards and the system is designed to advance road safety and vehicle safety standards beyond mandatory regulations.

The official also said the government is considering changing highway construction measurement method to 'lane km' from 'road km' in the current financial year as the government's focus has now shifted to building more expressways that are of at least four lanes.

Currently, the linear length method is used for measuring the progress of construction and widening of national highways, he added.

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