New Delhi: Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday, September 13 said there was no need to make it mandatory for carmakers to install six airbags in cars, the Hindu BusinessLine reported.This policy was to come into effect from October 1. But the proposal wasn’t finalised.“We don’t need to make it mandatory…everyone [car companies] is doing it, and some of them are making advertisements and getting good share [in sales], and those who don’t want to do it, they are pressing them [cars with 6 airbags in sales]…if they want good sales, they have to make six airbags, and if they don’t want to make it, it is their problem. We don’t want to make it mandatory,” said Gadkari.The move has come as a relief for automakers, some of whom had opposed it saying it would increase costs and deter buyers.After former Tata Sons chairman Cyrus Mistry died in a car accident in September 2022, Gadkari had said that six airbags will soon become mandatory in all cars, adding that there is no question of compromising on international standard of road safety.After Gadkari’s announcement, road safety experts had flagged that in a country where wearing rear seat belts is unheard, mandating the installation of six airbags can be counterproductive.“The six airbags in passenger vehicles should be made mandatory once 85% of the people start wearing rear seat belts. Once this figure is crossed pan-India, the government should go ahead with making this provision of six airbags mandatory,” K.K. Kapila, president emeritus, International Road Federation, had told Fortune India.In the Lok Sabha, the minister had expressed his determination to stand by his decision, despite the auto industry’s concerns about rising costs. He had said: “The industry got upset because I made six airbags mandatory in economic models…they said cost will increase, but I said let it increase…if a porr man dies, let him die, and save the rich man, is it? So from now on, any economic model, the smallest of the smallest, even nano model, every car will have six airbags.”It’s not clear why the government took a U-turn, not making the installation of six airbags mandatory.However, a leading car manufacturer told the business daily on Wednesday that most passenger cars, especially those priced Rs 8 lakh and above, come with six airbags as standard now, and they will also do the same for future models.“From the safety point of view, a lot of features are getting added, and getting six airbags as standard has become a norm for us now. The passenger cars come with an occupant detection system, and also a three-point seatbelt for the middle passenger at the rear seat,” a senior official with a leading company told the newspaper.Companies such as Hyundai Motor India recently launched its Exter small SUV with six airbags as standard, and its small car Grand i10 Nios also comes with four airbags as standard, the report added.These decisions assume significance in a country that has the deadliest roads in the world. Poor conditions, lax enforcement, unsafe vehicles and stray animals lead to more than 900,000 deaths and injuries a year, Bloomberg reported.Safety audits of road designs before starting construction are “grossly overlooked” in India, S. Velmurugan, chief scientist of traffic engineering and safety at the Delhi-based Central Road Research Institute, had told Bloomberg in May this year.Developers rely on software for designing the streets without checking whether they meet the needs of all road users and ensuring there are no flaws on the ground. It’s possible to reduce fatalities by at least 25% if authorities do the design audit, Velmurugan had said.India’s enforcement of speed, drunk driving and seat belt laws scores lower than China and the UK, Bloomberg reported, citing a World Health Organization report.In 2019, the Union government had proposed a new Motor Vehicles Act with stricter safety regulations to deter offenders, but many states resisted its implementation and reduced the substantial penalties for violators, the report added.