Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways Nitin Gadkari said that despite the promotion of alternative fuels and technologies such as Electric Vehicles (EV), Ethanol, Methanol, Biodiesel, LNG, CNG, and Hydrogen, it is difficult to eradicate the use of fossil fuels such as Diesel and Petrol.

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Addressing the CNN-News18 Townhall with Anand Narshiman, Gadkari said that electric buses, electric rikshaw, and scooters are ground reality now despite worries about their operability for longer distances.

Gadkari has for long been pushing for faster adoption of green fuel in the country, highlighting as much as 35 percent of pollution in India is due to diesel and petrol, which thereby, create the need of import-substituting, cost-effective and pollution-free products.

On the question of his dream project as the highways minister, the member of parliament (MP) from Nagpur responded by saying, "Freeing Delhi from Traffic jams and pollution." He added that his ministry is building a road network worth Rs 65,000 crores to ease congestion in Delhi and is also working to solve issues with stubble disposal.

Apart from this, the New Urban Extension Road-II connecting North Delhi with the Delhi-Jaipur highway will be open to the public later this year and is expected to help ease traffic congestion in the national capital. “A majority of the traffic jam and pollution in Delhi is because of the traffic going from North India to South India via Delhi. UER-II will reduce the traffic jams, time as well as pollution,” Gadkari said in March this year.

Gadkari also left the audience with a poll promise. As per him, 90 percent work on expressways — Delhi-Dehradun (2 hr.), Delhi-Jaipur (2 hr.), Delhi-Haridwar (1.5 hr.), Delhi-Chandigarh (2.5 hr.), Delhi-Amrtisar (4 hr.), Delhi-Katra (6 hr.), Delhi-Srinagar (8 hr.), Delhi-Mumbai (12 hr.), Chandigarh-Manali (3 hr.) — will be completed before January 2024.

Stubble burning in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana is a major cause of pollution in the National Capital and its nearby region, especially during winter. "We're making bio CNG and Bio LNG from Parali (stubble) burning. We've started 27 projects to curb Parali with 135 projects in process," he said.

Follow LIVE updates on News-18 Townhall here.

First Published:Jul 17, 2023 9:56 PM IST