Bhopal: 47% Cars Have White LED Headlights, No Major Crackdown Yet

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Apart from helmet and seat-belt checking, the city traffic police seem to have forgotten to take action against modified vehicles. Lately, about 47% car owners in Bhopal have removed LED headlamps, which are yellow in colour, and have installed white LED headlights, which affect vision of commuters coming from opposite direction at night.

This practice has caused frequent road accidents particularly in areas where the dividers are either absent or are not large enough to block the headlights of vehicles coming from the opposite direction.

About 58 accidents have taken place in the city due to poor visibility at night till July this year. According to official data, police took action against 21 modified vehicles till July this year all of which were two-wheelers. No action was taken against owners of such four-wheelers.

In fact, the state has no law that prohibits installation of white LED headlights in cars though the modification of vehicles is a punishable offence under Motor Vehicles Act. In April 2024, Gujarat became the first Indian state to prohibit installation of white LED lights in cars. When contacted, senior traffic police officials, DCP (traffic) Sanjay Singh, additional DCP (Traffic) Basant Kaul were unavailable for comment.

How did it start?

The automobile showroom owners in the city said the trend of installing white LED headlights began with SUVs. Gradually, the trend grew among four-wheeler commuters who began installing headlights in their cars too.