Maruti Suzuki opens 50th driving school
Publication: The Financial Express
Date: 15/03/2009

New Delhi : India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has increased the number of its driving schools in the country to 50 as it plans to impart training to at least five lakh people in the next five years.

The company has set up the 50th Maruti Driving School (MDS) at Belgaum in Karnataka.

Besides, the company plans to set up five more MDS in five cities across the country by the end of this month, Maruti Suzuki India said in a statement.

The new driving schools are a part of the company's 'National Road Safety Mission', which was launched last year to impart driving training to at least five lakh people in the next five years.

As part of the mission, the company is also planning to train about one lakh people from the economically weaker section to create an alternative way of income for them.

Inaugurating 'National Road Safety Mission' by the company, MSI Chairman R C Bhargava had said that modernization of automobile industry was incomplete unless people learnt to drive safely on the road.

Besides the 50 driving schools, MSI also operates two Institute of Driving Training & Research (IDTR). This training initiative has benefited about five lakh people so far, out of which over 50 per cent are women. It plans to add 4-5 IDTRs and are targeting 130 new driving schools by March 2010.