In news

Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Shri Prakash Javadekar inaugurated NATRAX- the High-Speed Track(HST) in Indore which is the longest such track in Asia. 

Highlights

• India destined to become an auto manufacturing hub in the coming years.
• NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land, is a one-stop solution for all sorts of high-speed performance tests for the widest categories of vehicles from 2 wheelers to heavy tractor-trailers.
  
• The NATRAX centre has multiple test capabilities like measurements of maximum speed, acceleration, constant speed fuel consumption, emission tests through real road driving simulation, high speed handling and stability evaluation during manoeuvred such as lane change, high speed durability testing, etc. and is a Centre of excellence for Vehicle Dynamics.

Abour HST

• HST is used for measuring the maximum speed capability of high-end cars like BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Tesla and so forth which cannot be measured on any of the Indian test tracks.
  
• Being centrally located in Madhya Pradesh, it is accessible to most of the major OEMs.
  
• Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions .
  
• At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high speed track abroad for high speed test requirements.
  
• It is one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests, being one of the largest in the world.
  
• It can cater to widest category of vehicles; say from two wheelers to the heaviest tractor trailers.
  
• Vehicle can achieve max speed of 375 Kmph on curves with steering control and it has less banking on ovals making it also one of the safest test track globally.

Source: The Hindu