The Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the premier Indian automotive body widely known to the people as providing fuel efficiency values for any new vehicle that is launched in the Indian market is looking to expand its services to countries overseas. ARAI is a testing and certification agency that has been setup by the Ministry of Heavy Industries, Govt of India for testing and certification facilities for any new vehicle going to be launched in India. it also provides technical expertise in R&D activities, testing, homologation and framing of vehicle regulations.
Based in Pune, it is planning to expand its network to countries like South Korea, China, South Africa, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia. Mr. Shrikant Marathe, Director, ARAI said that the Chinese and the Korean manufacturers are much concerned about the safety and other standards of their vehicles. He however, refused to give out the names of the specific companies but said that since many of them are based in India they are in need of services in the field of testing, services, certification and safety. Auto component suppliers in China and South Korea have lot of queries regarding industrial homologation and testing.
ARAI has many in-house testing facilities like tyre testing laboratory, seat testing with the help of Kuka Robot for developing seats especially for German auto manufacturers and highly accelerated life testing (HALT) for emission of commercial vehicles for air bag testing and advanced crash testing facility. In total it has invested about 22 crores for these R&D facilities and is hoping to receive the BIS certification for this.
Source – Business Standard
