At a time when the auto sector is slowly finding its feet again, recent decisions on pollution control by governments and courts have put a spoke in the wheel. Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari spoke to Bloomberg TV India on the way forward. Excerpts:
There have been a number of political, judicial and tribunal interventions in the last few weeks that have suddenly confused the automobile sector. Investors and companies have to grapple with multiple changes in a matter of a few days. What is the situation right now?
We need an integrated approach for all the problems. There is no doubt that the automobile sector contributes significantly to exports, creating more employment and paying taxes to the government. But at the same time, for the development of this sector, we have to think about problems like pollution. The world is changing and now pollution is a really big problem. We are facing a lot of problems due to pollution in Delhi. So this is the time for us to think in the direction that we should encourage the automobile sector to take up new technology, inventions, innovations that will increase our exports, employment potential and increase profits for the sector. At the same time, we have to decrease pollution. I feel that there is no confusion. The decision of the National Green Tribunal is very important. We must understand that in the past as well, when there was pollution in Delhi, the situation improved for which the credit goes to the Supreme Court. So the approach of my Ministry today is that we are ready to support the automobile industry for new changes and inventions, but at the same time we have to accept the norms of Euro V and Euro VI.
We have to change some parts of this sector to achieve the goal as far as pollution is concerned. It is not a difficult task but we need to change the mindset towards a vision for that. It is now time for the automobile sector to think about pollution and make innovation and changes. They can mobilise technology for bio-diesel, ethanol and bio-CNG. The world is changing so we should take an integrated approach.
Many people find the Delhi government's odd-even scheme very odd. And this is a political intervention where suddenly somebody has decided to alter things to such an extent.
The Delhi pollution and traffic jam problem is a different problem. If the State government is taking the initiative in the interest of Delhi, I do not want to criticise them.
Let us try and make it work. The main solution here is addressing the traffic jam in Delhi. There are some jam spots that we have identified. Within three months we will start work to decongest those. By improving the traffic jam spots I think we can give tremendous relief to the people of Delhi. Simultaneously, we are constructing an easterly-westerly bypass, that is an easterly peripheral road and westerly peripheral road and it is 143 km from our side. With this, 50 per cent of the traffic in Delhi can be reduced. Along with that, we are extending the metro rail system from Dhaula Kuan to Manesar. This is a 70-km extension. Work on that will start in the next two months. Then the NHAI has also finalised a plan. There are eight roads connected to the ring road, which will be transformed into elevated roads.
Doing this will also reduce the traffic jam and pollution in Delhi. Turning to fuel use, we can also use bio-diesel. I have agreed to give Delhi 10 lakh litres of bio-diesel. It will be pollution free and its cost will be ₹2-3 less per litre. So it is cost effective, pollution free, and an import substitute.
There are other new initiatives we are taking. For example in Nagpur, we are starting buses running 100 per cent on ethanol. We will take a decision within this month to add 50 more buses that will run on ethanol. Bihar and UP have got tremendous capacity for ethanol. So if we can transfer our transport from diesel to ethanol it will also serve as a big boost for farmers in Bihar and UP. We can also make ethanol from molasses, sugar cane juice, corn and now technology is available where we can make ethanol from biomass and municipal waste. Here's another solution. We can get methane from the sewage in Delhi and from that we can produce bio-CNG. We can run 1,000 buses in Delhi on bio-CNG.
This is the way we can solve the problem. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi, the Delhi Jal Nigam Board and the Central government are all interested in initiating new ways to reduce pollution. My department is ready to give all the cooperation that the agencies concerned need.
What is the future of diesel engines in a country like India? You have brought the forward BS norms but 90 per cent of the population is still using the older emission standard. What is the future now? India didn’t even have a proper policy response to the Volkswagen issue.
Even in the shipping sector we have decided to shift it to LNG. I am not an expert on this but LNG is the future. There is less pollution compared to diesel.
A big problem is the pollution caused by power generator sets run on diesel. We can make generator sets based on ethanol. We also have to find out the other reasons that have led to increased pollution. The departments concerned should address the problems and they are supposed to take action on it. This is the time when clean and pollution-free India should be a priority. As of now, the transport department does not have much expertise on this. So we have already taken a decision to form a department for this in the Transport Ministry. This department will have a full-fledged Secretary and a full secretariat. It will also have some international consultants who are experts in the automobile sector. We will take their advice and based on this we will have to bring this sector up to the international standards. We will have to adopt to international standards.
Do you feel that the diesel ban for engines over 2000 cc could be extended to other parts of India as well?
Even if the government approaches this with a compromising attitude, the court will not listen to us. If the court delivers a decision we will have to accept it. We need to fully understand the damages pollution is causing. The gases emitted like carbon monoxide, are hazardous for people. In Paris, our Prime Minister has already given a commitment that we will reduce pollution. So this is the time for us to act appropriately on addressing the pollution problem.