Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that he will soon launch electric tractors and trucks in India. Speaking at a Chinese conference in Pune, Gadkari said that the government will promote the use of alternative fuels and electric vehicles in a big way.
“Soon I will launch an electric tractor and electric truck,” he said, adding that the popularity of electric vehicles would increase manifold. Gadkari said that Bajaj, TVS and Hero have introduced electric bikes, and electric rickshaws are also on the roads.
He said that by 2025, the total turnover of the automobile industry would be around Rs 15 lakh crore from the current Rs 6.5 lakh crore.
“Automobiles is one of the major sectors that provide employment to over 4.5 crore people and pay the highest GST to the government. The share of the automobile industry in exports is huge and many companies export more than 50 percent of their vehicles.
ethanol production
He said that the experiment with the help of Russian scientists has been successful in equalizing the calorific value of petrol and ethanol and it is going to be a game-changer technique.
“We are trying to run construction equipment machinery and agricultural machinery on Bio CNG. JCBs can also run on 50 per cent CNG and 50 per cent diesel. Gadkari said that efforts should be made to convert agricultural implements into flex engines.
The minister said that sugar mills should focus on ethanol production to manage the finances of the industry. “To maintain the rate of sugar in the market, mills will have to convert the juice into ethanol and store the sugar syrup. Gadkari said that only if the production of sugar is less, it will get a good price in the market. He said that the government is making efforts to reduce the logistics cost of transportation of ethanol from ethanol producing states to non-ethanol states.
State Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray while addressing the conference assured support to the sugar industry, while NCP president Sharad Pawar said mills will have to reduce the cost of production of sugar. The conference was organized by Vasantdada Sugar Institute.
Published on
June 04, 2022