India advances 20% ethanol-blending in petrol by 5 years to 2025: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the target date for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol has been advanced by 5 years to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said the target date for achieving 20 per cent ethanol-blending with petrol has been advanced by five years to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence.

Ethanol extracted from sugarcane as well as damaged food grains such as wheat and broken rice and agriculture waste is less polluting and its use also provides farmers with an alternate source of income.

Speaking at the launch of the ethanol road map on the occasion of World Environment Day, Modi said the target for mixing 20 per cent ethanol in petrol has been brought forward from 2030 to 2025.

Last year, the government had set a target of reaching 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol (10 per cent of ethanol mixed with 90 per cent of diesel) by 2022 and 20 per cent doping by 2030.

Currently, about 8.5 per cent ethanol is mixed with petrol as against 1-1.5 per cent in 2014, he said adding ethanol procurement has risen from 38 crore litres to 320 crore litres.

Last year, oil companies spent Rs 21,000 crore on ethanol procurement, he said.

Besides helping the environment, the focus on ethanol is also leaving a positive impact on the lives of farmers, he said.

He went on to list India's efforts to protecting climate change, saying renewable energy capacity has risen 250 per cent and India is now among the top five nations with the largest installed capacity.

Also, India is now a proponent of climate change resolution and is among the top 10 nations on the Climate Change Performance Index, he said.

"Economy and ecology can go together. This is the path India has chosen," he said.