The Centre will shortly unveil a policy on the production of second-generation ethanol from biomass, which will be a “game changer” for farmers, Union Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Nitin Gadkari said here on Friday.
In an interaction with journalists at The Hindu , Mr. Gadkari said the Petroleum Ministry had taken the initiative to get pacts signed with 15 industrial units for bioethanol production. Ethanol could be produced from paddy and wheat straw, bagasse, biomass, segregated municipal waste and bamboo.
Burning of paddy straw in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana was causing pollution in New Delhi and elsewhere, and farm refuse could be used to solve the problem. In his home city of Nagpur, the Minister said, 55 air-conditioned buses were being operated using “100% bioethanol”.
Vehicles with “flexi-engines”, which can use 100% ethanol or a mix of 22% ethanol with petrol or a blend of 15% ethanol with diesel, were available globally.
On emission norms
By converting agricultural waste into bioethanol, farmers would be diversifying. The farm sector was in a state of “crisis”, the Minister said, and agriculture should get diversified into energy and power sectors.
Asked about the decision to implement Bharat Standard (BS)-VI emission norms, equivalent to the Euro-VI norms, by April 1, 2020 with a high investment and the goal to have 100% electric vehicles by 2030, he said it was not contradictory.
While the 2030 mission was to make cars and scooters electric, “we need diesel for commercial vehicles and cleaner fuels”, he said. The automotive sector was growing every year at 22%.
GST concession
A suggestion had been made to the Finance Minister to give concessions to electric cars while fixing the GST. The GST Council also had to consider it.
Referring to the pending proposal for an electric cable-car system, Mr. Gadkari said the 70-km stretch of Dhaula Kaun, Delhi to Manesar, Haryana, would be a pilot. Similar projects would be taken up in Varanasi and Nagpur. Joint ventures would be formed with companies in Italy, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland that had the technology.
Mr. Gadkari said the cost of the cable-car systems compared to Metro Rail with a similar passenger capacity was attractive. While a ropeway would cost ₹35 crore to ₹50 crore a km, a Metro cost ₹350 crore per km. Such systems could be tried in cities such as Coimbatore and Kochi.
On developing inland waterways for transport, the Minister said by December, work would have started on 10 such waterways.
Work on the Ganga and the Brahmaputra was under way. The Cabinet had approved ₹2,000 crore a year to be set apart out of the fuel cess collected for the Central Road Fund, and this could be used for the purpose.
Mr. Gadkari said the new Motor Vehicles law, likely to be passed in the Rajya Sabha soon, would tackle issues such as one-third of driving licences being fake and a shortage of drivers. The number of driver training institutes issuing certificates would go up to 2,000 from 84, with computer-based licensing to eliminate corruption, once the new law was in place.
