Passenger car prices could increase by Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 if Parliament approves a transport ministry proposal to amend the Motor Vehicles Act to extend the use of speed governors, currently restricted to commercial vehicles, to all vehicles.
The transport ministry has called a meeting of state transport ministers on August 6 to discuss differences over the implementation of speed governors on all vehicles.
The Union government had mandated the various state governments to implement the installation of speed governors in commercial vehicles in 2002.
But only some states like Delhi, Kerala and Karnataka have enforced the law, that too after repeated rulings by high courts and the Supreme Court following a large number of cases of public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue.
Most state governments still want the Centre to take responsibility for this, an issue that could create problems in vehicle movement between states that do and do not enforce this law.
The ministry wants a consensus on this issue before it goes ahead with its proposal to extend the purview of speed governors to personal vehicles.
The transport ministry had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of K N Nehru, Tamil Nadu state transport minister, to examine the issue and make recommendations.
"In the forthcoming meeting of state transport ministers, we will place the recommendations of the committee before them and try to evolve a consensus so that an amicable solution on the issue of speed governors is reached," said Saroj Kumar Dash, joint secretary, ministry of shipping, road transport and highways.
But implementing the extended law could be problematic for other reasons.
As a senior official at the Delhi transport department pointed out, "there are very few manufacturers of quality speed governors in India. Because of this, speed governors are expensive and enforcing the speed governors in personal vehicles will become a politically sensitive issue."
Automobile manufacturers declined to comment on the issue. Anil Gupta, director, Multi Speed Gears Ltd, a manufacturer of speed governors, said: "When the installation of speed governors becomes mandatory for all vehicles, original equipment manufacturers will introduce this new technology at a much more economical cost. So the speed governors that cost around Rs 15,000 will be made available at a much cheaper rate of Rs 10,000."
For smaller cars like the Maruti 800, the sticker price might go up over 5 per cent as a result of adding speed governors. For models like the Maruti Wagon R and the Hyundai Santro, the price increase could range from 3 to 4 per cent.
The implementation of speed governors has become a contentious issue as road accidents account for over 30 per cent of the total deaths in the country.
In 2006, the death toll had crossed over 100,000, one of the highest in the world. According to economists the social cost of such a high casualty rate is over Rs 150,000 crore (Rs 1,500 billion).
