Come March 16, and Toyota, the Japanese automaker, will debut a green hydrogen-based project in India, the first step toward introducing the alternative fuel vehicle that the Centre is aggressively pursuing.
“On March 16, a pilot project in New Delhi will see the launch of a Toyoto automobile produced in Japan. Nitin Gadkari, minister for national highways and road transport, stated during a CII Webinar that the car will run on green hydrogen.
While Gadkari has always emphasized the importance of flexi engine-powered vehicles in terms of mitigating environmental concerns, he stated on Saturday that such vehicles would be seen on Indian roads within the next six months.
India will soon have automobiles equipped with flexi engines capable of running on either 100 percent ethanol or 100 percent gasoline. Though such vehicles will use hybrid technology to enable them to run on electricity as well. “Hyundai, Suzuki, and Toyoto have all guaranteed me that they will introduce their vehicles as soon as feasible. “In the next six months, flexi-engine vehicles will be on the road,” Gadkari stated.
The government was attempting to promote the use of bio-CNG and bio-LNG in construction equipment. It hoped to accelerate the adoption of alternative fuels in transportation in light of the looming energy crisis, particularly in the aftermath of the Ukraine-Russia war.
While aggressively pursuing alternative fuels in transportation was one of the government’s top priorities, the government would soon announce a pre-cast policy to encourage the widespread use of precast elements in the construction of national highways, which can help reduce construction costs and time. The ministry concentrated on roadway development using waste materials such as plastics and rubber. Gadkari stated that the Central Road Research Institute, in collaboration with the ministry, was exploring for improved technology in the areas of road design, building, and maintenance.
Assuming that the technology push will have a significant impact on highway construction, the government announced in FY23 that it would award 297 projects totaling 12,000 kilometers and spending around ‘2.71 trillion. “The government has already allocated ‘111 trillion under the national infrastructure pipeline, 18 percent of which will go toward road development,” Gadkari said, adding that constructing a 600-kilometer-long access central greenfield expressway from Siliguri to Gorakhpur would cost an additional ‘40,000 crore.
