Bioenergy can cover 50% of fossil fuel consumption in 5 years: Gadkari

Bioenergy can cover 50 per cent of India's fossil fuel consumption in five years, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Monday while urging the automobile industry to undertake research and development on alternative fuels.

Air pollution has become a big problem because of fossil fuel, the Minister for Road, Transport and Highways said at the 'Bhoomipujan programme' of the Indian School for Design of Automobiles.

The transport sector is responsible for 40 per cent of air pollution in the country because of fossil fuel, the minister pointed out.

A lot of research and innovation is going on in fuel and automobile engineering. "We need to protect our ecology and environment, and fulfil the dream of the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) to make India a carbon-neutral country," Gadkari said.

Bioenergy can cover 50 per cent of India's fossil fuel consumption in five years which is very important because Rs 22 lakh crore is being spent on import of the fossil fuel, Gadkari said.

The country is working on different fuels like ethanol, flex engine, methanol, biodiesel, bio LNG, CNG, electric and hydrogen, the minister said. Ethanol is already being blended up to 20 per cent in petrol, he said.

"The future of the automobile industry is very good and today there is a huge potential for all types of new research," he said.

Speaking further, he said the domestic automobile sector is an important industry which has created crores of jobs and boosted exports. "This is the industry which has a maximum export of 3 lakh crores which is economically very important for our country. It has already created 4.5 crore jobs for young talents," Gadkari said.

Players like Bajaj, TVS, and Hero export 50 per cent of their production, he said.