New Delhi, Oct 3 (FN Agency) Stating the example from Brazil, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highway Nitin Gadkari on Saturday suggested that India should also make a case on the similar line and green fuel ethanol should become the country’s preferred mode of fuel. “Ethanol is a better and cheaper green fuel than petrol. All vehicles in the country should run on 100 per cent ethanol,” stated Gadkari. Stressing on the importance of converting sugar into ethanol, the minister said that ethanol production could save the country’s fuel. “Our country produced 4.65 billion litres of ethanol last year and we need 16.5 billion litres of ethanol.
So the central government will take up as much ethanol as is produced,” he said. The minister also asserted that ethanol production will fetch 5 lakh crore to the farmers.
“If ethanol is produced in the near future, imports will come down and farmers will earn Rs 5 lakh crore out of Rs 12 lakh crore being spent for import of crude oil. Sugarcane will fetch good prices and farmers will no longer remain poor,” he said. Gadkari also informed that the Centre is ready to enter into an Ethanol Purchase Agreement for five years, adding that the permission to produce ethanol not only from sugarcane but also from rice, maize and other grains has been granted by the union government. “We are importing crude oil and natural gas worth Rs 12 lakh crores in our country. The Government of India has allowed ethanol pumps. So, all sugar mills should start ethanol pumps in their area,” the minister added. The remarks from the minister came while he inaugurated a 527 km long national highway worth Rs 4,075 crore in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra today.