NEW DELHI: Now it’s official. Cars can drive at a maximum speed of 100 kmph and motorcycles at 80 kmph. The

road transport ministry

has notified the

revised speed limits

. However, civic bodies and local and state police have the power to notify specific speed limits for municipal and local roads taking into account safety aspects.

After 25 years, government has revised the speed limit of vehicles on roads.

It may sound strange, earlier there was no speed limit for cars at national level. Only the local police had set the norms.Government officials said local authorities would fix the speed limit for vehicles within their areas as per the provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act. “Obviously, a car or bike cannot be allowed at high speed in crowded or residential areas. So, local authorities including deputy commissioners, collectors and police will decide the speed limit for all categories of vehicles in every locality,” a ministry official said.The revision of speed limit comes after 25 years. TOI had first reported on August 2 that the road transport ministry has sought green signal from the law ministry to notify the fresh speed limits.As per the notification, vehicles used for carrying nine or more passengers such as mini bus or buses can now ply at a maximum speed of 80 kmph while vehicles used for carrying not more than eight passengers like cars are allowed to run at the maximum speed of 100 kmph. The speed limit of goods vehicles has also been increased to 80 kmph.Earlier the cap on speed for cabs, buses and goods vehicles was 65 kmph while it was 50 kmph for motor cycles. For the newly created category of vehicle – Quadricycle – the speed limit has been fixed at 70 kmph.“Though revising the speed limit was long overdue, we had suggested that the ministry should issue a guideline for local bodies and state governments that they should fix the limits after scientific study of local safety needs and the type of crashes that have happened,” said Rohit Baluja, a road safety expert and member of the panel that was constituted in 2006-07 to look afresh into speed limits.