NATRAX (National Automotive Test Track), Pithampur,

Dhar District Dhar district () is a districts of Madhya Pradesh, district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The historic town of Dhar is administrative headquarters of the district. The district has an area 8,153 km2. It is bounded by the distri ...

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (; ; ) is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and the largest city is Indore, Indore. Other major cities includes Gwalior, Jabalpur, and Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, Sagar. Madhya Pradesh is the List of states and union te ...

, is Asia's longest and one of the high-speed state-of-the-art tracks in India for automotive testing and certification. It is the fifth largest track in the world.

Background

The 11.3-km high-speed track is built under

NATRiP National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project (NATRiP), the largest and one of the most significant initiatives in automotive sector so far, represents a unique joining of hands between the Government of India, a number of state gover ...

(National Automotive Testing and R&D Infrastructure Project), a project of the

Ministry of Heavy Industries The Ministry of Heavy Industries is an executive agency of the Government of India. The Ministry entails for promoting the engineering industry viz. machine tools, heavy electrical, industrial machinery, and auto industry and administration o ...

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

, has an area of approximately 3000 acres and the track is developed in an area of about 1000 acres at a cost or Rs.1321 crores. The Automotive Mission Plan (2016–26) is a vision document by Government of India that was planned for the development of the industry in pursuit of economic growth and the track was part of it. It is located near the industrial township of Pithampur, in

Dhar district Dhar district () is a districts of Madhya Pradesh, district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. The historic town of Dhar is administrative headquarters of the district. The district has an area 8,153 km2. It is bounded by the distri ...

. It is 50 km from the

Indore Indore (; ISO 15919, ISO: , ) is the largest and most populous Cities in India, city in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The commercial capital of the state, it has been declared as the List of cleanest cities in India, cleanest city of In ...

, and is on the NH-52 by-pass road which connects Indore to

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

. An auto show was held at NATRAX in May 2022. About 80 super cars and 60 super bikes from Indore,

Bhopal Bhopal (; ISO 15919, ISO: Bhōpāl, ) is the capital (political), capital city of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and the administrative headquarters of both Bhopal district and Bhopal division. It is known as the ''City of Lakes,'' due to ...

and Delhi took part in different races at the show. The three-day show attracted about 1200 visitors, including students.

Track

It has two semi-circular curves that can test vehicles at a maximum neutral speed of 250 km per hour. The track can offer maximum speeds of 375 kmph on the curves with steering control. A lot of different tests, including measurement of maximum speed, acceleration, coast down, brake fade, constant speed fuel consumption, emission tests through real-road driving simulation, can be conducted at this track. It is also a Centre of Excellence (CoE) for vehicle dynamics. The Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises

Prakash Javadekar Prakash Keshav Javadekar (born 30 January 1951) is an Indian politician and former parliamentarian. He served as the Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change two times, from May 2014 to July 2016 and from May 2019 to July 2021. Java ...

inaugurated the track on 29 June 2021. Dr. N. Karuppaiah is the centre head for the track. The track is also suitable for motorsports events but is yet to be homologated by the motorsports federations FIA or FIM. It is yet to get NABL accreditation to be able to issue homologation certificates to OEMs.

Facilities

Test tracks: High-speed track - The high-speed 11.3-km four-lane track is used to develop and homologate all kinds of vehicles. Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) can conduct all kinds of tests at one place.{{Cite web , title=Multi Friction Braking Track , url=https://www.natrax.in/braking-track/ , access-date=2023-12-25 , website=National Automotive Test Tracks , language=en-US Dynamic platform: The vehicle dynamic platform is the 300-metre steering pad and is connected to 1500-metre long-vehicle dynamic test area. Multi-friction braking track: With a mu range from 0.15 to 0.9, the Braking Track can conduct braking tests on various surfaces like basalt, ceramic, high-friction asphalt and polish concrete for homologation. NATRAX also has a gradient track, fatigue track, gravel and off-road track, handling track, comfort track, sustainability track and other facilities like noise track and wet-skid pad.

References

External links

NATRAX
Road transport Vehicle technology Road test tracks Vehicle industry Automotive industry Research and development in India Automotive industry in India