Nagpur: The Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari made a strong pitch for electric vehicles on Tuesday assuring Lok Sabha members that the price of these e-vehicles would be on a par with petrol ones within two years.
Replying to a 12-hour discussion on demands for grants for his Ministry in the Lower House, Gadkari made a string of promises — reducing the Delhi-Mumbai road travel time to 12 hours by the end of the year; completing the Zoji-la tunnel by 2024 instead of the 2026 deadline; no toll within 40 km on any national highway; and a road to Kailash Mansarovar from India (Pithorgarh) by 2023.
Gold Rate
Thursday 09 Jan. 2025
Gadkari further said that within a maximum of two years, the cost of electric scooters, cars and auto-rickshaws will be the same as petrol scooters, cars and auto-rickshaws. Prices of lithium-ion batteries are coming down. We are developing this chemistry of zinc-ion, aluminium-ion, sodium-ion batteries. If you are spending Rs 100 on petrol, you will spend Rs 10 for using electric vehicles, he asserted.
Emphasising on shifting to cost-effective fuel, Gadkari urged MPs to adopt hydrogen-based transport technologies and take the initiative in their respective constituencies to use sewage water for producing hydrogen. Hydrogen will soon be the cheapest fuel alternative, he said.
Gadkari stressed focus on green fuel and green technology. He urged MPs across party lines that the infrastructure development should be prioritised while considering the “environment and ecology sensitively” — but not in “an exaggerated way”. The minister said the country should start thinking about “electricity-based public transport” to reduce pollution.
The Environment and Forest Act was enacted in 1980, said Gadkari. “We want development, we want job opportunities, we want exports and we want the environment, too. I urge you to rise above politics and in the national interest think about ways to develop our infrastructure. We should all come together and decide what rules and laws we need to make.” He also promised to significantly improve road infrastructure by 2024.
“American roads are not good because America is rich but America is rich because American roads are good. To make India prosperous, I assure that before December 2024 India’s road infrastructure will be like America,” he said. Gadkari said road projects worth Rs 62,000 crore have been undertaken in the national capital to ease traffic congestion and tackle pollution.
Highlighting improvements in highways and roads, Gadkari said it now takes only 40 minutes to travel to Meerut from Delhi, as against four hours earlier. “Our aim is to reduce the cost of construction and improve quality,” he said, adding that a record milestone of 38 km/day road construction was achieved by India last year.
On the progress in infrastructure, the minister said road travel between Delhi and Jaipur and Delhi and Haridwar now takes 2 hours. Similarly, the travel time from Delhi to Amritsar is now four hours. He urged MPs to make plans for cable cars and ropeways and promised to “clear them soon”. “There is no dearth of funds. You make plans, I will get the roads built,” he said.
