The government plans to make it compulsory for new cars to provide airbags on the passenger side of the front seats from April. This could hike prices by Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 for the entry level standard variants.

“Most of the car variants sold in India (88 per cent) are already equipped with dual airbags. Only 61 variants of 905 cars in India are not sold with dual airbags. Since these are lower variants it would not be difficult for OEMs to implement this,” Ravi Bhatia, president of JATO Dynamics, an auto analytics firm, told The Telegraph.

The Centre plans to implement this norm for all models of cars which are manufactured from April 1, 2021, onwards. For already existing units, the date to complying with the new rule is proposed to be June 1, 2021.

Analysts clarified that those models which are being manufactured would have to comply from June and new models to be launched would have to comply from April.

The government has invited stakeholders to comment on its proposed new rule in the next one month. Previously, the government had made having an airbag mandatory on the driver’s seat in all cars. This had come into effect on July 1, 2019.

Maruti’s Alto, S-Presso, Celerio or Wagon R have only a driver airbag as standard. Similarly, the lower variants of the Renault Kwid and Hyndai Santro only come with a driver-side airbag and same is the case with the Hyundai Santro.