The National Automotive Test Tracks (NATRAX) facility has been inaugurated in Madhya Pradesh’s Pithampur district on June 29. The facility is located on the NH-3 Bypass Road, which is also the route from Indore to Mumbai. The NATRAX is spread over 2900 acres of land, and is said to be more equipped than the facilities in China and Japan. This testing facility will be beneficial not just to Indian manufacturers, but also foreign manufacturers who lacked proper testing facilities for their prototypes and will be looking to make full use of the NATRAX testing facility.
The high-speed test track is the highlight of the NATRAX facility. At 11.3km long and 16m wide, this is the longest high-speed test track in Asia and the fifth longest in the world. The length of the track will allow vehicles to reach speeds up to 375 kmph, with no limits on top speed on straight patches.
In addition to the high-speed test track, the NATRAX facility also provides a wide range of testing tracks for manufacturers to carry out various tests for their prototypes. These include a dynamic platform, gradient track, wet skid pad, comfort track, noise track, gravel and off-road track, braking track, sustainability track, fatigue track, and separate handling tracks for cars, two-wheelers and three-wheelers. In addition to these tracks, NATRAX also offers different laboratories such as a dynamics lab, powertrain lab, battery test systems, CAD/CAE labs, and a vehicle instrumentation lab.