By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, SEPT 08, 2018: THE Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Shipping, Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, Mr Nitin Gadkari, has called the urgent attention of automobile companies towards the need for an efficient public transport system in the country, run on electricity or alternate fuels.

Addressing CEOs of Indian and global automobile companies as part of MOVE: Global Mobility Summit 2018 in New Delhi today, Mr Gadkari urged them to actively think about diversifying into the public transport sector, and focus their research and innovation efforts in this direction. Private vehicles are proliferating rapidly on Indian roads he said, and highways expansion cannot feasibly keep pace with this growth.  We therefore need to encourage people to shift to public transport, and for this we have to put in place systems that are efficient and convenient, comfortable and safe. 

Mr Gadkari further emphasized the need to bring down the huge cost of petroleum imports that the country bears, and reiterated his appeal to the automobile sector to shift to electricity or alternate fuels like ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel or hybrid. He assured the companies that the government was committed to developing all kinds of fuels – anything that brought import-substitution, was cost effective, environment friendly and indigenous.

The minister also appealed to the industry to explore inland waterways and coastal shipping as alternate and cheaper means of transportation. He said the ongoing Jal Marg Vikas project on River Ganga was readying the river for transport, and this route, which will link further to Brahmaputra, will make it possible to transport goods from India right up to Bangladesh and Myanmar through waterways.  He called upon  automobile companies to use this route for transporting their vehicles.