Indigenous lithium-ion buses headed for Parliament: Gadkari

Riding high on 'green fuel' drive, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari today said his ministry will donate three lithium ion-powered buses to Parliament while a pilot project in collaboration with ISRO is on to run 20 such buses on Delhi roads.
This would also be in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Make in India drive, he said.
"In the next Parliament session, my ministry will donate three buses to the Speaker. These will be run on lithium ion batteries developed by ISRO scientists in collaboration with the department," Gadkari said at an event on 'Green Fuel Vehicles'.

Gadkari said the project to develop lithium ion batteries for transport solutions was undertaken by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and the indigenously developed batteries are likely to cost "Rs 5-7 lakh compared with Rs 55 lakh" of the imported ones.
"We are going to commercialise it. For patents, we have registered it. It would be a game changer," he said.
He said a pilot project to run 20 such buses will be implemented soon and its replication will follow.

The minister also spoke of a 'Green Fund' to convert diesel buses into electric ones.
He suggested that methane can be extracted from sewage water to produce bio-CNG which can be used for running buses.

The green fuel, Gadkari said further, will not only help in enhancing energy security, but contribute to job creation and GDP growth of India. It will also considerably reduce the burden of import bill, the minister added.
He is of the view that farmers could switch to ethanol production instead of sugar to tap higher prices.