More Maruti driving schools in India soon

Maruti has announced that they will expand their current network of driving schools – Institute of Driving Training and Research – in India. A whole 110 of them.

Good, I say. The average driving school in India is a con job, as we all know. They are focused on making sure you can change gears, hold the steering wheel, and get you a license. Job over.

Maruti driving schools are a different story. Sure, a bit of the typical Indian laziness and occasional ineptitude notwithstanding, theier training is in a different league altogether.

There are two separate versions of the maruti Driving Schools, actually. There are the Institues of Driving Training and Research, which currently exist only in New Delhi. There are two of them. Maruti plans to start another ten IDTRs in India. Then there are the Maruti Driving Schools. Currently there are 40 Maruti Driving Schools in India, and the numbers would go up by another 110 by 2010.

The Business Standard reports that “Maruti has trained 450,000 people in seven years and plans to train 800,000 people in the next three years at its ITDRs, to be set up in other states. Within a year, one ITDR each will be opened in Bahadurgarh, Rohtak, Dehradun and Vadodara.”

Maruti Suzuki General Manager RK Parimoo said that they plan to train another 5 lakh people in the next three years.

The new Maruti Driving Schools will have a a franchisee model; Maruti dealers will have to invest up to Rs 30 lakh for a model driving school. Profits would only come from clients who may proceed to buy a Maruti car from the dealer.

Ashok Leyland currently has one IDTR, and Tata Motors too has one in Punjab.

The more the merrier, we say. A lot of people, given the option, would choose to learn driving a little better in the driving simulators and air-conditioned cars from Maruti, instead of a pan-shewing instructor and a ricket car with no mirrors.

The driving training at a maruti Driving School or IDTR includes traffic rules and road manners, car maintenance and theory lessons.

We are so utspoken about it, because two people with this site learnt their driving from Maruti Driving School in Navi Mumbai, and are all thrilled about the experience.