Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that he will soon launch electric tractors and trucks in India. Speaking at a sugar conference in Pune, Gadkari said that the government will promote the use of alternate fuel and electric vehicles in a big way.
“Soon I will be launching an electric tractor and electric truck,” he said adding that the popularity of electric vehicles will multiply. Gadkari added that Bajaj, TVS, and Hero have introduced electric bikes, and also electric rickshaws are on roads.
He added that by 2025 the overall turnover of the automobile industry would be around ₹15 lakh crore from the present ₹6.5 lakh crore.
“ Automobileis one of the major sectors which provides jobs to over 4.5 crore people and pay highest GST to the government. The share of automobile industry in export is huge and many companies export more than 50 per cent of their vehicles” said Gadkari.
Ethanol production
He said that the experiment with the help of Russian scientists in equalising the calorific value of petrol and ethanol has succeeded and this is going to be a game-changer technology.
“ We are trying to run construction equipment machinery and agricultural machinery on bio CNG. Even JCBs can run on 50 per cent CNG and 50 per cent diesel. Efforts should be made to convert agri equipment to flex engines” said Gadkari.
The Minister added that sugar mills must focus on ethanol production to manage the finances of the industry. “To maintain the rate of sugar in the market, mills must convert juice to ethanol and store sugar syrup. Only if sugar production is less, it will get a good price in the market” said Gadkari. He said that the government is taking efforts to lessen the logistic cost of transporting ethanol from ethanol-producing States to non-ethanol States.
State Chief Minister Uddhav Thackery while addressing the conference assured support to the sugar industry while NCP President Sharad Pawar said that mills will have to reduce the production cost of sugar. The conference was organized by Vasantdada Sugar Institute.