Creating new benchmarks in safety, Maruti Udyog [Get Quote] Limited on Monday announced it would set up 15 world class driving schools in India in the next three months.

The Maruti driving schools, opened at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, are the first in the country.

Among the cities where MDS would be opened are Jammu, Delhi, Gurgaon and Chennai, MUL director (marketing) K Saito told reporters in Kochi.

As part of a pilot project, Maruti opened driving schools at Bangalore, Chandigarh and Kollam last year and taking into consideration the overwhelming response, it was decided to start more such schools, he said.

Pointing to the accident ratio in India and Japan, he said India had 10 million vehicles and the traffic accidents were an alarming 87,000 a year against Japan's 74 million vehicles on roads and an accident rate of 8,400 a year.

Concern about the mounting deaths on Indian roads, led the car manufacturer to focus on road safety and traffic management, he said.

"While we are requesting the government to set up a National Road Safety Board to improve safety, we believe that Maruti as the market leader, also has a role and so this initiative of setting up the Maruti driving schools across the country."

The training course at the school would be as per international norms. All learners would get classroom training, practical training and attitude training. The students would be first training on simulator on which they can practice all car controls like steering, accelerator, brakes and gear-shift before they take the actual vehicle on the road, P K Parimoo,

Do you want to discuss stock tips? Do you know a hot one? Join the Stock Market Investments Discussion Group