New Delhi: Union Road transport minister on Thursday stressed on need to increase the production of electric vehicles saying that his idea and dream is to make e-highways. Gadkari also shared the idea is to make 27 green express highways.
The green highways would reduce the travel time from Delhi to Chandigarh to half hour, Delhi to Rishikesh to two hours, Delhi to Jaipur to two hours, Delhi to Katra to six hours, Delhi to Amritsar to four hours, Delhi to Srinagar to eight hours, Delhi to Mumbai to twelve hours and Chennai to Bengaluru to two hours.
Presently, one truck takes 52 hours from Delhi to Mumbai but it would be reduced to 20-22 hours by the end of this year. “Confident that this is going to reduce logistics cost,” Gadkari said addressing the 62nd SIAM Annual Convention on Thursday.
Stating that this industry is giving employment to 4 crore youth of this country and providing maximum revenue in form of GST to the government, the minister said for making India a $5 trillion economy, our target is to make the automobile industry of Rs 50 lakh crore within the next five years.
We are the largest manufacturers of two-wheelers and three- wheelers in world, fourth largest manufacturer of passenger vehicles. Industry must reduce imports and focus on increasing exports, he added.
The road transport minister also touched upon the logistics cost which is 14-16 per cent of the GDP currently. “Logistics cost is one of the most important things for the growth of the country because it 14-16 per cent of the GDP currently. For China, it is 8-10 per cent and for European countries, it is 12 per cent. I am confident that within two years after the construction of these 27 green express highways, we will reduce the cost by 4 per cent and the target is to take it to ten per cent,” he said.
Further, Gadkari urged vehicle manufacturers to focus on safety adding that Bharat NCap expected to increase exports. “As far as international standards are concerned, we need to develop quality which can be accepted by the world, which is why Bharat NCap is very important,” he said.
We need to discourage the sale of petrol and diesel cars in view of air pollution, he noted.
Electric Vehicles
Gadkari highlighted that there’s an increased acceptance of electric vehicles and 15 lakh EVs have been registered in the country. The overall rise in sales is 162 per cent and there’s been a 425 per cent jump in electric two-wheelers. 250 new startups have started manufacturing EVs.
“Electric four-wheelers sales meanwhile picked up 230 per cent. Electric three-wheeler sales were up 75 per cent while electric buses, which have gained popularity in recent years with state and city transport departments witnessed a growth of 1,600 per cent,” he said at the event.
My dream is to make India automobile industry the number 1 manufacturing hub in the world for electric, ethanol, CNG, LNG vehicles, Gadkari added.
He added that there’s also huge potential in EV buses. “Just like in European countries, we can start these luxury double-decker electric buses going from Delhi to Haridwar, Delhi to Jaipur etc. We need to encourage public transport,” the minister expressed.
“My idea and dream is to make e-highways. I have 120 metre of width available on Delhi-Mumbai highway. We want to make electric highway where we can run e-bus, e-truck,” he said.
LNG – the fuel of the future
I feel that LNG is the fuel for the future of transport. I recently launched an LNG truck manufacturing plant in Pune. In single fill, an LNG truck can cover a distance of 1,400 km. As compared with the cost of diesel, LNG cost is just 50 per cent, Gadkari shared.
