Speed Revision: 100 kmph for Cars, 80 for Bikes

Love to touch that 100kmph mark? Well now its legal. The road transport ministry has revised the speed limits under which cars can be driven upto a maximum speed of 100kmph and motorcycles upto 80kmph mark. Earlier there were no speed limits for cars at the national level, though for the municipal and local roads, state and local police have the power to set the specific speed limits for the safety issue.

As per the new rules, the vehicles such as mini bus or buses, carrying nine or more passengers will now have to stick under the 80kmph mark. Moreover cars and vehicles carrying not more than 8 passengers are allowed to run at max speed of 100kmph, while goods carrying vehicles are not allowed to go beyond 80 kmph. Quadricycles are also included in the list and are given a speed limit of 70 kmph. These new set of rules for speed limit comes after 25 years.

Government officials on revised speed limits also mentioned that local authorities would fix the speed limit for vehicles within their areas as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. "Obviously, a car or bike cannot be allowed at high speed in crowded or residential areas. So, local authorities including deputy commissioners, collectors and police will decide the speed limit for all categories of vehicles in every locality," a ministry official said. Talking about the previous limits, taxis, buses and goods vehicles were earlier allowed to touch 65 kmph mark while for motorcycles, the maximum speed limited was fixed at 50 kmph.

Rohit Baluja, a Road Safety Expert and Member of the Panel that was formed in 2006-07 to revise the speed limits, said, "Though revising the speed limit was long overdue, we had suggested that the ministry should issue a guideline for local bodies and state governments that they should fix the limits after scientific study of local safety needs and the type of crashes that have happened."