‘300 bioethanol generating industries to be set up in 2 yrs’

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the government is promoting ethanol production in a big way in the country.

With the increased supply of ethanol, Gadkari said the government plans to introduce flex-fuel engine vehicles, during an interaction organised by the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kanara Industries Association (KII) and CREDAI in Mangaluru.

In the next two years, more than 300 industries producing bioethanol will come up in the country. When compared to petrol and diesel, bioethanol is environmentally friendly and can be produced from agricultural produces like rice, corn, biomass and others. There is huge potential in bioethanol and this is the time to make India into an ethanol economy, he said.

Stressing on green hydrogen, the minister said that green hydrogen is used in European countries. There are ample opportunities for the production of green hydrogen in the country.

A car that runs on green hydrogen will be launched shortly as a pilot project to gauge the feasibility of such vehicles. The green hydrogen for the car will be supplied from the Indian Oil pump. Green hydrogen will be the fuel of the future, he said.

To reduce the logistic cost in the country, as many as 22 green express highways are being built in the country. The work on Chennai-Bengaluru express highway is in progress. Once completed, one can reach Bengaluru from Chennai in two hours, he added.

On the need for promoting waterways, the minister said 102 waterways were sanctioned in the country. There is a lot of potential for promoting waterways in rivers Kaveri and Krishna. By using waterways, we can reduce the logistic cost.

“For Atmanirbhar Bharat to become successful, we have increased exports. My idea is to start exporting automobiles from India. We have introduced scrapping policy,” he said.

“Technology and innovation are important for growth. Though India has a lot of institutes, unfortunately, we do not have an institute for entrepreneurship,” he said and urged for starting a course on entrepreneurship.