The transport and logistics industry should gear up for stricter pollution norms and adopting liquefied natural gas (LNG) as a future fuel, according to Minister of Road Transport and Highways, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Nitin Gadkari.

He said, “Across the world, trucks are covered with a layer of rexine to curtail pollution due to falling debris. We would want the same in India and will soon be making legal provisions to mandate the same.”

Gadkari was speaking at the grand finale of the second edition of Transporters Meet, an event for the transporter sector organised by BusinessLine in association with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd and Mahindra Small Commercial Vehicles held on Wednesday.

Addressing the transporters there, Gadkari said, “Your business is dependent on affordability of fuel. Currently, diesel is the primary fuel but the next means is LNG for long distances and compressed natural gas (CNG) for short distances. As a pilot project, CNG and LNG gas stations are being set up on the Delhi-Mumbai highway.”

Charging electric trucks

“The next technology is having electric buses that are charged by cables along the highways as they move. The other is of induction charging under the road. The vehicle is charged as it moves along from the chargers that are laid below the concrete roads,” he added.

Elaborating on the technologies that the government will soon be adopting, Gadkari said, “Another technology being developed is charging electric trucks through a rail being laid in the middle lane of the road. These rails of 20 km are going to charge electric trucks as they move on them and then travel a distance of some 100 or 200 km on a full charge. The next rail of 20 km will be set up after this distance, giving a sustained charge for vehicles. We are planning to set these up on the Axis Control Express Highways in the country.”

Plugging corruption

Taking a stern view against corruption, Gadkari said, “There should be zero tolerance for corruption and the truckers as an association should not pay government representatives in lieu of favours to pass their trucks through check points.”

“Why do truckers pay if they are not in the wrong. The representatives are being corrupted by the truckers who have made it a norm to keep paying bribes for letting them go. If someone is forcing you to pay up, then there must be retribution and truckers should lodge complains after collecting some evidence of wrongdoing. The Centre will support them in their cause and investigative agencies would be taking action,” he said.

“I too have written to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for plugging such corruption,” he added.

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