The Hindu : Funds released for automotive testing facilities

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 13, 2002

Business

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Funds released for automotive testing facilities

NEW DELHI AUG. 12. The Automobile Cess Committee today approved 21 new projects entailing a cost of Rs. 50 crores for upgradation of automotive testing facilities in the country.

"It has been decided to immediately release Rs. 26 crores of the Rs. 50 crores for the newly sanctioned projects and 19 projects already under implementation to help testing agencies in testing automobiles for Euro-II and Euro-III norms and worldclass safety standards,'' B. N. Jha, Heavy Industries Secretary, told reporters here.

Projects for which the funds had been released related to testing of seat belts, upgradation of tyre and battery testing facility, establishment of test track for testing pass-by noise, testing of evaporative emissions and electro-magnetic interference of automobiles, he said.

Mr. Jha said Rs. 50 crores were part of the Rs. 1,480 crore fund approved by the Government to undertake major upgradation of the testing facilities in the country over eight years.

While Government and other agencies would raise 25 per cent of the corpus, the remaining 75 per cent would be raised through soft loans from multi-lateral funding agencies and through bilateral funding from Kuwait.

"We have already secured approval from the Department of Economic Affairs of the Finance Ministry. It has now been forwarded for funding by OPEC, Vienna, and the Government of Kuwait,'' he added.

PTI

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