In an exclusive interview with News18, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has said that India was importing crude oil, gas and petroleum worth Rs 8 lakh crore and wants to replace them with alternative fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, CNG, electric, bio-LNG and green hydrogen.
“I am confident as transport minister that within three years, we are going to establish all kinds of technology manufacturing in India and the country will be the No. 1 manufacturing hub for automobiles in the world within five years. We aim to make the turnover of this sector Rs 15 lakh crore from 7.5 lakh crore,” he said.
In addition to this, Gadkari claimed that within two years, by getting good manufacturing numbers, the cost of electric two, three, and four-wheelers, and even buses, will be equal to petrol and diesel vehicles.
“We can achieve that,” he said, saying it a “numbers game”. He said e-vehicle growth had increased in big cities like Mumbai, Pune and Delhi and within two years, there will be electric buses in all corporations. “Lithium-ion batteries now being manufactured here, but we are developing zinc-ion, sodium-ion and aluminium-ion. So this new chemistry is going to be helpful for the industry. We are moving towards green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is the fuel for the future and my idea is to export green hydrogen to the whole world,” Gadkari said.