NEW DELHI: Nearly a year after relaxing the testing norms for cars imported by individuals, the government has now decided to allow carmakers to import left-hand drive vehicles into India albeit only for testing and research purposes.
The imported left-hand driven vehicles, senior government officials said, cannot be sold to Indian customers. "These vehicles can be imported strictly for testing purposes by companies.
With most countries following the left-hand drive norms, we have decided to open up this small window to allow manufacturers access to the latest technology across the globe," a senior official with DGFT said.
The permission, the official added, has been granted following several requests from individual car makers and Siam).
India follows the right hand drive norm that''s also adopted by countries like UK and South Africa. Though embassies and state missions were earlier allowed to import left hand drive cars, even this selective import was it was barred later.
Siam DG Dilip Chenoy said this would help carmakers get the latest technologies and try to adapt these to Indian technologies. "This will ensure the best from the developed world is available to Indian consumers faster than before," an industry observer said.
This comes on the heels of the government relaxing norms for individuals importing top-end cars, by waiving off the testing — or hom*ologation — requirements. Under these norms, any individual can import a vehicle priced above Rs 20 lakh without sending it for road-worthiness tests.
