India's drivers feel the need for speed

India, set to become the fastest growing car sales market in the world, bowed to the inevitable yesterday when the government indicated it would raise the country's speed limits for the first time since 1989.

The change, from a top speed of 80kph (50mph) to 100kph (62mph), has been spurred on by a roads revolution in India, the centrepiece of which is the 3,650-mile Golden Quadrilateral highway, which is the largest infrastructure project undertaken since gaining independence in 1947.

The £4bn expressways form a diamond linking Delhi with Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, and mark the beginning of more than £35bn worth of road projects.

The new highways have created an unprecedented demand for mobility, in terms of faster cars and faster roads.

The motoring lobby says that the new higher speeds are a welcome "expansion of freedom in a over-regulated country".

"It was absurd that we have speed limits of 60kph on many expressways. I mean you cannot get a decent car into fifth gear with speeds that low," said Murad Ali Baig, a motoring columnist.

Baig said the new limit would have been impossible a decade ago because the average Indian car was not safe to drive at such speeds: "The modern cars sold in India have seat belts, most meet global crash test norms and we will see anti-lock braking systems being made mandatory pretty soon."

With the arrival of smooth, wide roads, annual car sales are expected to nearly double over the next five years, to 2.3m in 2012, surpassing China as the fastest growing auto market.

Toyota, BMW and Renault have all started to manufacture in the country. But the latest figures show that more than 96,000 people were killed on the roads in 2005 and raising the speed limit could increase the accident rate.

"I think the government really has to act on licensing. At the moment anybody can just buy a licence and there's no need to take a test," said Hormazd Sorabjee, editor of Autocar India. "The best story I saw was someone getting a licence for a blind guy."

Despite the new speed limits, for most drivers in India life is lived in the not-so-fast lane. Cars are second-class citizens on most of the country's roads, which are packed with cows and carts, and their owners can do little more than slowly pick their way through a maze of decrepit backstreets and gridlocked intersections.

Many environmentalists say the real issue for India is that there is no real push for public transport in the country where cars already make up 30% of petrol-derived carbon dioxide emissions.