The Road Ministry of India has formed a special panel to look into the recently announced recall by General Motors of 1.14 lakh units of its Chevrolet Tavera Multi Purpose Vehicle (MPV). Sources close to the development process stated that the company has violated the norms of emission and panel will decide that whether some charges are to be filed against the auto maker. It is believed that the Chief Executive Officer of National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project, Nitin Gokarn has been nominated to spearhead the committee.
On this move, a ministry official was quoted as saying, “The committee will find out how it happened when there are standard emission norms specified in detail by the government.” In an interview, asking about that when the panel will submit the final report, the ministry official, without sharing the exact time, said “As soon as possible.”
It must be noted that the recall of General Motors India has been counted among the largest call backs in the Indian auto market, with 1.14 lakh units of Chevrolet Tavera. This recall covers only those models, which are produced between 2005 and 2013. The reason cited by the company for this recall addresses specification and emissions issues. Interestingly, the panel is also anticipated to consider “whether any penal action can be taken against the company for not following the standard prescribed norms and measures to avoid such things in the future.”
On the other hand, the senior officials of General Motors India said that the company has informed the respective authorities of Indian government regarding emission issues, which were involved in the Tavera BSIII and an issue while meeting certain specifications in the Tavera BSIV.
Also, the auto maker has already stopped the manufacturing and sale of Tavera BSIV from July 2 and Tavera BSIII from June 4. It must be noted that since the Indian auto industry lobby, Society of Indian Automobiles Manufacturers (SIAM) had declared the voluntary recall policy of its members in July 2012, around 2 lakh units of automotives are recalled by a number of companies in India, wherein a large amount was accounted by four-wheelers. Adding figures of General Motors India, the recall units have crossed the mark of 3 lakh.
However, the recall policy of SIAM only covers issues that exist in an automobile, which do not meet the safety requirements because of manufacturing glitches and not the emission related issues.
