Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said Tuesday that buses run on methanol-blended fuels, like the ones plying in the Karnataka capital, are important for other states also as use of methanol can solve the greater challenge of pollution in major cities across India.
“One year before in Bengaluru, I got an opportunity to start 25 buses by using 15 per cent methanol into diesel. The pilot project was implemented and it proved to be successful. Ashok Leyland and Tata both have trucks where we can use methanol. In Assam 800 tonnes of methanol is available, which is used in petroleum. It is important to use methanol in major equipment, particularly in the Northeast area, which is rich in the fuel. My suggestion to state to state is to plan things based on the fuel available in your respective states,” he said.
Gadkari was speaking at the EXCON 2023 exhibition organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Bengaluru. As part of a pilot project, the BMTC launched 80 buses with methanol fuel and 20 Ashok Leyland buses during the initial phase.
He added, “By embracing the new technology, we can reduce the cost of making double-decker flyovers in places like Chennai and Nagpur. In Pune we are also executing the two-tier system on a single pier in the infrastructure works.”
Nitin Gadkari
Also appealed to the construction equipment industry to practise “converting waste to wealth” by adding 15 per cent rubber powder into bitumen to protect ecology and to achieve carbon neutrality.
Gadkari also stressed on the huge demand for mechanisation of road construction with the introduction of new technologies. “The future (of road construction) is now with the precast industry. We just accepted a new technology from Malaysia, which is the reinforcement concrete. Through this, the distance between the two piers during metro construction can be increased to 120 m from the existing 50 m,” he said
