NATRAX, Asia's Longest High Speed Track Opens In India

NATRAX, a high speed track (HST) designed to be a one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests for all category of vehicles from two-wheelers to heavy tractor trailers, has been unveiled by the Centre in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.

The high speed track, which was inaugurated by the Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Prakash Javadekar on June 29, is the longest of its kind in Asia and is developed in an area of 1,000 acres of land with a length of 11.3 km.

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 manoeuvreing such as lane change and high speed durability testing. It is also a Centre of Excellence for vehicle dynamics.

According to official sources, the HST will be 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 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions, sources added.

At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high speed track abroad for high speed test requirements.

Vehicle can achieve maximum speed of 375 km per hour on curves with steering control and it has less banking on ovals making it also one of the safest test track globally.