Nagpur: The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Morus) is planning to lay the road network of green that stretches up to 12,000 km in three to four years into the future in India.
Under the Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari, Morth launched a policy of ‘Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, beautification), 2015’ which promotes greening of highway corridor with the participation of the public, farmers, private sector, NGOs and government agencies.
In an exclusive chat with TOI on top of the plane to a rally in Bijnor in Uttar Pradesh, Nagpur MP explained the various green energy projects he pursued and plans to create a pollution-free state.
Excerpts: Q.
In what ways green highway would be beneficial? A.
It will help the country to achieve zero pollution.
It will be a completely new road, which will start from zero and in a straight alignment.
We will use materials such as plastics and rubber Bitumen.
There will be a large number of green tree plantations on both sides.
Importantly, it will be fully access and access control for straight alignment, it will save a lot of fuel and effort.
In the current system, we change two lanes into four and four lanes to six, but they consume more fuel and time.
Q.
Morth also working on the concept of e-highway.
A.
We are building 26 green highway that will connect the ports, airports, railway and bus stations, city center and the center of religious tourism.
We tried to make-delhi Jaipur Expressway into e-highway where trucks and buses will run on electric cables like a train.
Some of the 26 green highway project is under Bharatmala and GatiSishakti scheme.
When I took over morth, the total length of highways is 96,000 km and is now over 1.47 lakh km.
Our goal is to bring it to 2 lakh Km.
We will apply a lot of new concepts and technologies with a view to making cost-effective transportation, pollution-free and environmentally friendly.
Q.
You often talk about hydrogen fuel.
A.
We plan to use green hydrogen fuel from waste water by using solar energy.
Made possible by using elektroliser.
One start-up in Bangalore exporting all elektrolisinya to the United States.
We can use it in India.
In the company and the city council, the waste water is available in many respects.
With the segregation of solid waste management using a solar roof, we can make green hydrogen with the aid elektroliser.
Costs for producing power and water would be negligible.
We can use this fuel in the engine even train together with cement and chemical companies, instead of coal.
It is the fuel of the future, because of its economic feasibility.
We were also able to run trucks and buses.
This will save our imports in a big way.
From the standpoint of the environment and ecology that will be the best thing that happened in our country.
Q.
Is the green hydrogen is tried and tested in India? A.
In the first week of January, we started a pilot project in which we will get a green hydrogen car from Toyota in Japan.
We will fill the Green Hydrogen Laboratory Faridabad Faridabad India (IOC), which has produced it.
It is an experiment to demonstrate to the people who use this form of fuel is possible.
A day will come in two years, where we will have a vehicle that runs on hydrogen, which will be a great revolution in this country, and also can reduce pollution.
Q.
Why are you always trying to use green fuel? A.
We are currently importing crude oil which cost the country more than Rs 8 lakh crore.
In the next five years, the cost would jump to Rs 25 Lakh Crore.
Fuels such as ethanol, bio-bio-cng lng ad made from rice straw, electric vehicles are all solutions to reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
We also grant permission to use flex engines in two, three and four wheels.
We came up with a hybrid engine-flex like a Toyota Camry that can generate power while running on ethanol.
We are already working on the chemistry of the battery using lithium, sodium, zinc and aluminum.
In two years, the cost of electric vehicles will be equivalent to gasoline and diesel product.
Electricity is also a technology of the future and we want to make a truck run over it.
Even in construction equipment, we want to use biofuels.