Cars will run without petrol, BJP govt is working on this scheme

New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari said that the transport ministry is working on a Flexi Engine option plan, which will allow commuters choose their preferred fuel option.

The transport minister said that in the coming days, consumers can choose either petrol or ethanol to run their cars.

Nitin Gadkari also highlighted the need to make ethanol using food grain, adding that sugarcane has a lot of potential in the making of ethanol.

In September this year, Gadkari had promised all support to the automobile industry. He encouraged automakers to introduce flex-fuel engines in India on a large scale to promote alternative fuel in alignment with the government's 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' drive.

To encourage alternative fuel, the government has decided to allow automakers meeting certain criteria to set up own fuel pumps, provided they sell green fuel too, Gadkari said, asserting that carmakers could easily introduce flex engines on par with Brazil, the US and Canada if they could leapfrog from BS-IV norms to BS-VI.

Gadkari, who also holds the MSME portfolio, said the vision was to make the Indian automobile industry number one manufacturing hub in the globe and cut on huge annual crude imports bill to the tune of Rs 7 lakh crore by promoting alternative fuel.

In January this year, Gadkari had asserted that he wants to create a Rs 50,000-crore ethanol economy the bio-fuel will benefit both "ecology and economy".

Gadkari had said that a lot of years went into convincing about ethanol use but in the last five years, the policy related to ethanol has been implemented in true sense.

Gadkari added that though a lot of oil companies and others are going into the right direction in the field of green fuel these days, the increased use of ethanol will help ecologically and economically. This will lead to reduction in import of crude oil and will also benefit ecology and economy.