India’s magnitude is massive in all respects. Along with being one of the largest consumer markets globally, it is also a hotspot for large-scale infrastructure development. In the current federal budget, India is spending over $133 billion on infrastructure, 3.4% of the GDP, a clear indicator of the government’s intent to transform mobility and connectivity.
This infrastructure push is already bearing fruit. According to MoRTH, India’s highway network has expanded by 60% over the last decade, and high-speed corridors have jumped from just 93 km to 2,474 km in the same timeframe.
Despite this growth, India’s roads are under increasing stress. Road density stands at 1.94 km of road per square km of land, higher than even the US or China. But this has not kept pace with vehicular growth. Car density stands at 185 per 1,000 people, projected to cross 300 by 2050. Meanwhile, 2-wheeler density is the second highest globally, trailing only Sri Lanka.
This vehicular boom brings congestion, longer travel times, and reduced mobility for essential services. For example, the average ambulance response time in India is 33 minutes, compared to just over 8 minutes in Japan, a delay that costs lives.
On top of that, only 25% of India’s population uses public transport. Between 2014–2019, state-run transport corporations increased their fleet by just 4.6%, while ridership dropped by 5.8%. Cumulatively, state transport undertakings reported losses of ₹17,932 crore (~$2.1 billion). Metro systems haven’t fared much better. Non-fare revenues in India average 8–11%, compared to 25–58% globally, while last-mile connectivity remains a critical pain point.
The Honourable Minister for Road Transport and Highways sometime back confirmed that India witnessed 1.72 lakh road fatalities in 2023, with 4.8 lakh accidents reported. Independent estimates suggest these numbers could be underreported by 45–50%.
Clearly, India is facing a systemic imbalance between transport demand and infrastructure supply. And this imbalance is causing loss of time, capital, and most importantly, human lives.
How C-V2X Can Be India’s Turning Point
C-V2X (Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything) enables vehicles to communicate with each other and with infrastructure, pedestrians, and even traffic systems, offering non-line-of-sight visibility in real-time, even in poor weather or blind corners. It has the potential to be the digital seatbelt of the 21st century, preventing crashes before they happen.
Globally, countries are fast-tracking C-V2X adoption:
🚗 China leads the pack with its $1.4 trillion New Infrastructure initiative 2020-25), focused on 5G and V2X.
🚗 In 2024, China launched a 20-city pilot with 20,000 roadside units (RSUs) already being deployed.
🚗 C-V2X has been included in the China NCAP (C-NCAP) and is expected to result in 30 million new V2X-enabled vehicles annually by 2034.
🚗 Automakers like BYD, Volkswagen and Audi are already integrating C-V2X in their production lines.
🚗 In Europe, V2X is a cornerstone of the Vision Zero goal to eliminate road fatalities by 2050. Volkswagen launched the Golf 8 with V2X as early as 2019, and the upcoming 2026 Euro NCAP will award points for V2X-based hazard warnings.
🚗 Other countries including Korea, Canada, and the U.S. are rolling out supportive V2X frameworks and testbeds.
Fast lane for C-V2X in India
To accelerate C-V2X deployment in India, the most urgent and high-impact step is to delicense the 5.9 GHz safety spectrum, making it free for vehicular communication use just as China, Europe, and the US have done. This will eliminate a major regulatory bottleneck and signal government commitment to road safety innovation. Simultaneously, India should integrate C-V2X into Bharat NCAP (BNCAP) by awarding safety points for vehicles equipped with this technology. This will encourage automakers to begin embedding V2X modules across segments, as has been successfully demonstrated in China and Europe.
Given the disproportionately high number of fatalities involving two-wheelers, India should also mandate basic V2X beacons in all new two-wheelers, starting with affordable, transmit-only units that broadcast the bike’s location and speed—offering real-time visibility to surrounding vehicles. Parallelly, a focused rollout of V2X in emergency vehicles like ambulances and police cars can dramatically reduce response times, especially in congested cities. Finally, building a standardized V2X infrastructure at key urban intersections, starting with smart city zones and expressways, will enable real-world vehicle-to-infrastructure communication and lay the foundation for future intelligent traffic systems.
By starting with these four pillars such as spectrum delicensing, safety rating incentives, two-wheeler integration, and emergency/public vehicle prioritization, India can rapidly unlock the transformative potential of C-V2X and move closer to safer, smarter roads.
These four important enablers will completely transform the vehicular traffic in India elevating the experiences on the road as well as adding to everyone’s safety. It’s time to proactively welcome V2X in India and make vehicles understand and communicate with everything around.
