'India's future vehicles will run on hydrogen and green fuels': Nitin Gadkari

In the coming years India will certainly shift to electric vehicles, Gadkari said, addressing the second Ideas of India Summit organised by the ABP Network in Mumbai.

“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.

The Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways reiterated that lithium-ion battery costs will come down in the next year or so, and underscored 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 in Maharashtra in the coming elections and said that the performance audit of the ministers was more important than the financial audit.

He said that the government had created 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 percent 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 society to introduce road safety education at the primary level to make Indians aware of this at a young age.

Gadkari also said that his target is to build 60 km 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.