Hydrogen is our future fuel and India’s future vehicles will run on hydrogen and green fuels, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari said here today. Addressing the second Ideas of India Summit organised by the ABP Network, he said although he never spoke about India’s EV targets for the year 2030, in the coming years India will certainly shift to electric vehicles. “We import Rs. 16 lakh crore worth of fossil fuel every year but pretty soon our farmers will produce green fuel and green hydrogen,” he said adding that Lithium ion batteries will lead the shift from petrol and diesel driven cars.
Reiterating that Lithium ion battery costs will come down in the next year or so, the minister said that India will soon become a net exporter of Lithium and become a major global player.
Expressing satisfaction with the development of highways in the country, Gadkari said, “In the coming years, public transport will be revolutionised in the country and the new highways will bring down travel time between key cities drastically.”
The minister also expressed confidence that the NDA and BJP will form the government both at the Centre and Maharashtra in the coming elections and said that performance audit of the ministers was more important than financial audit. He said that the government had created a positivity among people which will bring growth.
The minister however, said that his ministry and government had failed to curb the accident rate on Indian roads. “We wanted to reduce road accidents by 50 per cent by 2024 but we are not going to achieve it,” he said. For this, he said, human behaviour has to change as people were still not following rules of red lights, car seat belts or two wheeler helmets. He urged the society to introduce road safety education at the primary level to make Indians aware about this at a young age.
Gadkari also said that his target is to build 60 kms of roads every day and announced that new facilities like helipads and drone pads will be built on new toads for quick and emergency transport.
The ABP India Summit brought together the brightest brains from diverse sectors to address the question– where does India stand at this moment in history, with its burgeoning economy successfully tackling the energy divisions of yet another war in Europe, with a post-pandemic recalibrating world looking up to her as a global leader and a whole new generation of Indians impatient to lead across sectors? This year, the grand second edition of the ‘Ideas of India’ summit was woven around the theme of Naya India: Looking Inward, Reaching Out.
The second edition of ABP’s ‘Ideas of India’ Summit is taking place at a time of extreme global churn where India has a critical role to play in the changing global dynamics. With the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections just a few months away, issues like geo-political tension, inflation, unemployment and digitization have become important points of discussion. The two-day event will put the spotlight on where India stands today amidst such turbulence. The two-day event will help people know more about these prevailing issues and disruptions through the lens of those dealing with them at the strategic and core levels.
Here is the entire conversation:
