India got Asia’s longest and the world’s fifth longest High Speed Track with the inauguration of NATRAX– the High Speed Track(HST) in Indore on Tuesday. Minister of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Prakash Javadekar inaugurated the facility.
NATRAX, developed in an area of 1000 acres of land, is a one-stop solution for all sorts of high-speed performance tests for widest categories of vehicles from two wheelers to heavy tractor trailers.
On the launch of the 11.3 km High Speed Track, Javadekar said that the country is destined to become a hub of automobiles, manufacturing, and spare parts. “We are fast moving towards an ‘AatmaNirbhar Bharat’ and all round efforts are being made in this direction,” he said.
The Minister further said that the long pending projects in railways, highways and waterways are being completed because of the strong political will.
High-Speed Track is the heart of any proving ground for the auto sector. Today, inaugurated the longest high-speed track in Asia at Indore.
A proud moment for India and a key initiative in realising PM Shri @narendramodi 's vision of #AatmaNirbharBharat pic.twitter.com/lTnaz0ppQv
— Prakash Javadekar (@PrakashJavdekar) June 29, 2021
Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Arjun Ram Meghwal said the Narendra Modi government was promoting manufacturing and automobile industry, as it will help empowering the nation at a larger scale.
CENTRE
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 manoeuvred such as lane change, high speed durability testing, etc. and is a Centre of excellence for Vehicle Dynamics.
The Track is located near the industrial township of Pithampur in Dhar district, which is 50 km from Indore, the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh. It is situated on NH-3 By-Pass Road (Indore – Mumbai). The center is developed in about 3,000 acres of land.
VISION AND MISSION
- Offer world-class testing and evaluation services catering for all categories of vehicles from 2/3 wheelers to heavy commercial vehicles aspect National and International standards
- To be a World Class Automotive Proving Ground.
- To render professional services for comprehensive testing and evaluation of performance and accelerated durability assessment of all categories of vehicles.
- To excel in Research and Development of Vehicle Dynamics and Tyre Technologies.
- To maintain the global standards of test tracks for accurate and repeatable test results, confidential and safe testing to the limits.
- To adopt world class professional practices in the field of testing and evaluation of vehicles.
- To assist Industry in validation of their vehicle / component design by testing on test tracks and laboratories through robust test methods and instrumentation of high accuracies.
- To support the Industry for research and development in the areas of Vehicle Dynamics and Tyre Technologies.
- To foster the Industry for indigenous development of safe, comfortable and high performance vehicles.
HIGH SPEED TRACK
HST is 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 OEMs. Foreign OEMs will be looking at NATRAX HST for the development of prototype cars for Indian conditions . At present, foreign OEMs go to their respective high speed track abroad for high speed test requirements.
It is one stop solution for all sorts of high speed performance tests, being one of the largest in the world. It can cater to widest category of vehicles; say from two wheelers to the heaviest tractor trailers.Vehicle can achieve max speed of 375 Kmph on curves with steering control and it has less banking on ovals making it also one of the safest test track globally.
TRACKS
High Speed Track: one of the largest in the world and is used to carry out development and homologation tests.
Dynamic Platform: One the largest in the world and a variety of tests can be performed on this track. It is The 300m Steering pad is connected by. 
Braking Track: used to perform braking tests on various surfaces for homologation. This track has mu range from 0.15 to 0.9 with various surfaces like Basalt, Ceramic..
Gradient Track: This is used to test the torque capacity of a vehicle and also to determine the Gradability of the test vehicle.
Fatigue Track: This accelerated fatigue track has variety of surfaces from low to high severity and designed to produce accelerated ageing of the vehicle’s structure and components.
Gravel And Off Road Track: The total length of track is 3.5 km. The track consists of two loops i.e Gravel (width-6m) and Forest/Off road (width-5m). The
Handling Track: This track is 3.6 km in length with 8m width. Radius of curves varying between 20m to 300m. This track has road gradient from 1.5 % to 4.5 % off road consists of various patches
Comfort Track: This track is used to evaluate Noise and ride comfort evaluation of vehicle. There are different surfaces like rough concrete, smooth concrete, etc.
Handling Track For 2&3 W: This track is Circuit of 1.5km length with width of 6m and Specially designed of 2 and 3 wheeled vehicles.
Sustainability Track: This track is used to simulate hill driving condition and for evaluation of cooling performance of vehicles. This track has constant 8 % slope with total length of 800 m.
Wet Skid Pad: Circular pad to develop ESP systems and tyres in wet conditions. Includes two lanes with different adhesion coefficient: basalt and asphalt.
Noise Track: used to perform homologation tests for pass-by noise measurement and Tyre Noise measurement.
TEST LABS
- Vehicle Dynamics Lab
- Powertrain Lab
- Battery Test Systems
- CAD/ CAE Lab
- Vehicle Instrumentation Lab
