Gadkari announced the establishment of a new testing agency at Rs 450 crore in Pune with all facilities. The project will in 3 months and boost the automobile industry.
“World class testing agencies are important. Bharat-NCAP has boosted exports. Consumers are quality cautious and are not cost-centric anymore. NCAP is important as road accident rates are high. We need good quality vehicles,” said Gadkari, urging manufacturers to produce good quality and design. He also requested them to have alternative fuel options for their vehicles to capture world market.
He said that alternate fuel is important and has huge potential. CNG vehicle market is 8 lakh crore, he added. “In 2014 we had 750 CNG stations. Today we have 6,000. Target by 2030 is to have 20,000 CNG station.”
The minster said that the country aimed to develop a gas economy as it is cost effective and environment friendly.
“Methanol blended with diesel is successfully implemented in busses in Bengaluru. Government is interested to develop methanol economy. We can reduce rate of LPG by adding it. Same is the case with LNG,” said Gadkari.
Trucks on LNG can be low cost. They can save up to Rs 12 lakh per year and the cost can be recovered in 2 years, he added. Construction equipment can use methanol, CNG and LNG, he further said. “Rs 1000 crore road project needs 100 crore diesel,” claimed the minister.
He said that futuristic planning was important and called to develop hydrogen technology in the country. “India can produce 5 million metric tonnes of hydrogen per year. Hydrogen as the capacity to produce 125 GW energy. It requires 8 lakh crore investment, and will create 6 lakh jobs,” said Gadkari.
He, however, acknowledged that a kilogram hydrogen needs 50 units electricity. He said that the government has decided to segregate municipal waste and produce hydrogen. About 80 lakh tonnes waste from Delhi-Mumbai highway and 40 lakh tonnes from Ahmedabad would be taken to produce hydrogen. “We need cost of hydrogen to be $1 per kg so we can capture the market,” added the minister.
Gadkari said that the automobile industry would play a key role in India’s journey of becoming a $5 trillion economy. He pointed out that the sector was worth Rs 22 lakh crore, the third highest in the world and had the capacity to become number one in the world.
Gadkari said that the industry’s contribution to the manufacturing sector was 35 per cent, with 4.5 crore jobs and paid about Rs 3.5 lakh crore in GST. He also said that India was the third largest Personal Vehicle market in world, largest two-wheeler market, and the second largest manufacturer of two and three wheelers.
Talking about road safety, Gadkari said India reported 5 lakh accidents and 1.68 lakh deaths in the last year. He said that 60 per cent of all accidents involved peopled aged 18-36 years.
Being the minister, he took the responsibility and said that road engineers had made errors. He added that his ministry has invested 40,000 crore to reduce blind spots. He also appealed for the people to follow the rules and requested automobile companies to set up driving schools to produce good drivers.
The minister termed economic and environmental challenges as the two major hiccups for the industry. “We import Rs 22 lakh crore worth fossil fuels,” said Gadkari.
Further, he said, “Transport sector contributes 30-40 per cent of air pollution. It produces 330 million metric tonnes every year. We want to be Carbon neutral by 2070.” He said that he was not against petrol and diesel but it was essential to protect people from air pollution.
Talking about the efforts made by the current government, he said that there were 56 per cent diesel PVs in 2014 and currently the number has reduced to 18 per cent. The minister urged automobile companies to use proven technology and available to raw materials to manufacture vehicles that run on alternate fuels.
He reiterated that India’s electric vehicle sales was growing. “EV growth is fantastic. 30 lakh EVs have been registered. There has been a 45 per cent increase EV sales in 2023-24. 56 per cent of all two-wheelers are EVs,” he said.