Government Proposes Stricter Headlight Rules to Reduce Road Glare and Improve Safety

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has drafted amendments to the Central Motor Vehicles Rules aimed at overhauling vehicle lighting standards to mitigate glare and enhance night-time road safety across India. The proposed regulations target high-intensity lights, automatic headlamps, and commercial vehicle visibility, with changes scheduled to take effect for new production vehicles once finalised. A primary objective of the initiative is to eliminate severe headlight glare from oncoming traffic, which frequently impairs the vision of road users and increases collision risks.

Under the proposed draft, automatic headlamp systems fitted on new two-wheelers will be mandated to operate exclusively in passing-beam, or low-beam, mode. While current Automatic Headlamp On (AHO) systems can function in either low or high beam depending on user settings, the updated rule ensures the system defaults and remains on low beam. This regulation will apply solely to newly manufactured two-wheelers, leaving vehicles already on the road unaffected.

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Additionally, the government intends to significantly lower the maximum permissible luminous intensity of high-beam headlights across vehicle categories. For two-wheelers, the peak intensity limit is proposed to drop from 1.5 lakh candela (cd) down to 1 lakh cd. For four-wheelers, the maximum threshold will be reduced from 2.25 lakh cd to 1.5 lakh cd. To further minimise visual discomfort for oncoming drivers, the draft caps the maximum colour temperature of such high-intensity illumination at 6,500 Kelvin (K), restricting excessively harsh blue-white light outputs.

The draft regulations also introduce updated visibility mandates for commercial transport, requiring buses and heavy goods vehicles to feature genuine reflective safety tape to ensure they are easily identifiable at night and during poor weather conditions. Furthermore, the draft seeks to revise technical standards for modern lighting technologies, including adaptive passing beams and adaptive high-beam systems, aligning advanced automotive setups with updated safety criteria.