MoRTH Releases Draft Tyre Norms To Improve Safety & Fuel Efficiency Of Vehicles

A draft notification proposing new vehicle tyre norms has been issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) recently, aiming to improve safety and fuel efficiency of buses, cars and trucks.

The draft rules proposes that new tyre designs for the 3 vehicle segments shall meet the requirements of rolling resistance, rolling sound emissions and wet grip, as specified in Stage-II of the Automotive Industry Standards (AIS) from 1st October 2021.

All other existing tyre designs across the above mentioned vehicle segments, shall comply with the new norms by 1st October, 2022. The draft vehicle tyre norms will align tyre performance with the Stage-II limits of European regulations.

As is well known, rolling resistance of tyres affects fuel efficiency of a vehicle, while the rolling sound emission (the sound emitted from the contact between the tyres in motion and the road surface) has a major effect with respect to the noise level in the cabin. Wet grip focuses on the braking performance of the tyres when the conditions are not ideal or wet.

While the regulations start with the AIS, they later will be included in the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). Objections and suggestions to these draft vehicle tyre norms have been invited by the Road Transport Ministry.

While these new norms will go a long way to improve in addressing the issue of road safety in India, there are plentiful other factors that have to taken into account by the lawmakers to make Indian roads safer.