Maruti says it trained 15 lakh in safe driving through its training centres

Maruti Suzuki India claims it has helped more than 15 lakh people to learn how to drive safely. India’s largest carmaker has achieved this milestone by training people through several Maruti Driving Schools it has spread across the country.

Maruti Suzuki India’s Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava said, "At MSDS, our focus is to inculcate safe and responsible road behaviour in each applicant while imparting safe driving skills with 360 degree knowledge about the vehicle basic maintenance and emergency handling techniques."

Maruti currently has a little less than 500 driving training centres in the country. These centres are based out of more than 230 cities across India. Maruti says that with the help of around 1,400 trained instructors, the carmaker has helped millions to learn how to drive in a safe manner.

Reminding that these training centres are aimed to provide ‘best-in-class’ training for people, Shashank Srivastava said, "Through MSDS we have trained over 1.5 million applicants on safe driving. This milestone also demonstrates our commitment to offer scientific and technical driving knowledge. It has grown to become India's leading professional driving school chain with over 492 facilities in 238 cities across India. The MSDS network has around 1,400 certified and qualified expert trainers."

The driving school facilities run by Maruti Suzuki offers training through a hybrid curriculum. Besides giving insights into on-road driving situations it offers classroom training by experts to impart key things like good road behaviour, defensive driving, knowledge of Good Samaritan law along with an understanding of the regular traffic rules and regulations.

Maruti issued a statement that said, "In 2020, MSDS introduced new courses customised for applicants who need more on-road practice. Apart from running various programs for novice and young learners, MSDS collaborates with various corporates, fleet owners and jointly conducts programs to suit varied needs."

India accounts for the highest number of road accidents globally, with 1.5 lakh people being killed and more than 4.5 lakh crippled annually in 4.5 lakh road accidents. It is one of the 'biggest failures' for the Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways as was admitted by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari last year. Gadkari had said India loses 2% of GDP every year due to road accidents.