New Delhi: Youngsters riding bikes at high speed without hands on the handlebars and performing stunts have long been a common sight in India, raising serious safety concerns for both riders and other motorists and even pedestrians.
This could soon change.
The government is planning a three-layer “hands-free” safety system for two-wheelers, requiring manufacturers to install technology that can detect whether riders have both hands on the handlebars and step in if they do not, amid rising road accidents in the country.
According to an internal draft of the proposal, reviewed by Mint, the planned safety standards would require bikes and scooters to prevent ignition without both hands on the grip, issue audio and visual alerts if hands are removed while riding, and gradually slow down the vehicle in such cases.
Price impact
The introduction of new standards will lead to additional costs for automakers, which are typically passed on to consumers, with the proposed measures expected to increase prices by ₹800-1,000 per unit for installing sensors on handlebars, at least two industry executives said. The move marks a fresh push by the Centre to tighten two-wheeler safety norms even as its attempt to mandate anti-lock braking systems (ABS) across all categories of two-wheelers irrespective of engine capacity remains stuck amid industry resistance and cost concerns. Mint first reported in July last year that the Centre had begun working on a plan to curb hands-off driving in two-wheelers.
“There have been deliberations with the government on this where we have discussed a range of features that can be introduced on two-wheelers. The Automotive Industry Standards Committee (AISC) has prepared a set of regulations and test procedures to crack down on people removing hands while driving,” the senior executive cited above said on the condition of anonymity.
"Any price increase could have an adverse impact on demand, especially when coupled with an increase in fuel prices. However, regulations that do not lead to an adverse sticker shock could see a lower impact on demand," said Ashim Sharma, senior partner and business unit head at Nomura Research Institute (NRI) Consulting and Solutions, India.
Consultations between the government and automobile manufacturers in 2025 on increasing road safety involved discussions about whether the industry could introduce features on vehicles to reduce accidents, at a time when the government had indicated its view to mandate the use of ABS, Mint reported in July 2025.
AISC works under the aegis of the ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) and prepares standards, which are then approved by Central Motor Vehicle Rules (CMVR) Technical Standing Committee.
Representatives from testing agency International Centre for Automotive Technology (ICAT), Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) and all major two-wheeler manufacturers like Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, TVS Motor Company, Honda Motorcycle and Scooter India, Ather Energy, and Ola Electric were part of the panel which prepared the latest safety standards for motorcycles and scooters.
Madhusudan Joshi, head of technology and business at ICAT, is the convenor which prepared the latest standards.
Queries sent to MoRTH, Joshi, SIAM, Hero MotoCorp, Honda, Bajaj, TVS, Ola, and Ather Energy remained unanswered till press time.
After the standards are approved by the Central Motor Vehicle Rules Technical Standing Committee, the government's official testing agency Automotive Research Association of India (Arai) publishes the norms, which automakers have to follow.
According to the draft, there are three tests a two-wheeler has to comply with. First, sensors on the handlebar should detect whether both hands are properly in place to initiate ignition of the vehicle. During a vehicle in motion, an audio-visual alert must start three seconds after either of the rider's hands is taken off the handlebar. After eight seconds of hands being off the handlebar, the standards require a "coast down" mode to be activated, which will progressively slow down the vehicle as a safety intervention.
Once the standards are approved, all new two-wheeler models must comply. It is not clear yet whether the standards will be uniformly applied across each category or an exception will be made for entry-level two-wheelers.
Experts suggest that engineering such a system will not be a challenge for automakers but will increase costs.
Deepesh Rathore, founder and head of research at two-wheeler consultancy InsightEV, suggests that all two-wheelers already have an electronic control unit (ECU) which can be tweaked to comply with such a system.
“The two-wheeler players will have to add sensors on the handlebars and align the ECU to meet the norms,” Rathore said.
“Before introducing such a system, there should be a thought on the practical challenges as global models are being imported in India and Indian models are also being exported. No one is introducing such features, as it is a unique problem the government is trying to address here,” he added.
The government’s focus on increasing road safety stems from the large number of road accidents in the country. According to the National Crime Record Bureau’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India 2024 report, nearly 468,000 road accidents were recorded in India in 2024, which left 448,365 persons injured and 175,142 dead.
The government’s push to curb two-wheeler accidents began with the publication of draft anti-lock braking system (ABS) norms, which propose mandating such systems for all two-wheelers in the country. Currently, ABS is mandatory only for motorcycles above 125cc.
The mandate faced strong opposition from two-wheeler manufacturers, who argued that it would increase vehicle prices by ₹3,000– ₹5,000 and hurt sales of entry-level motorcycles, which are in high demand in rural India.
Although the draft proposed making the anti-lock braking system requirement effective from January 2026, the plan has since stalled, with no final notification issued by the government yet. Moreover, automakers also argue that there is no evidence that installation of such features would curb two-wheeler accidents.
“At the end of the day, it will boil down to the behaviour of the rider on the road and compliance with traffic rules. Installation of such safety systems will push up prices but cannot guarantee that two-wheeler accidents will reduce,” the senior executive quoted earlier said.