Vehicles running fully on ethanol will be launched in August: Nitin Gadkari

New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said he will be launching in August vehicles running 100 per cent on ethanol.

‘From August, I will be launching vehicles running 100 per cent on Ethanol. Bajaj, TVS and Hero have manufactured motorcycles running 100 per cent on Ethanol,’ Gadkari told news agency ANI.

The minister cited the example Toyota company's Camry car, which runs 60 percent on petrol and 40 per cent on electricity, to suggest how to cut the country’s reliance on imported fuel.

Calling the initiative a ‘revolution in the country’, he said ethanol ‘will be import-substitute, cost-effective, pollution-free and indigenous. This is prepared by farmers because now ethanol is made from sugarcane juice.’

Gadkari, a strong advocate of sustainable and eco-friendly initiatives in road construction, said he has always taken work beyond politics, which he credited with the BJP.

‘ Politics and development should not be mixed up. I am a Karyakarta of the BJP, but the government belongs to the people of the country. That is why Prime Minister Modi said, Sabka Saath Sabka Viswas Sabka Prayas,’ Gadkari was quoted as saying.

Nitin Gadkari said he had undertaken most of the developmental projects sought by states where the BJP is not in power.

‘Roads go through all states. One state may be governed by Congress another by BJP. That doesn't mean I should shut down the road development works. Roads are for the people of India. And I'm not just a BJP minister but a minister of the Government of India,’ he reportedly said.

Gadkari, who began his career as a Karyakarta of Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad, spent nine years in office seeing it to the fruition of various developmental projects.