Watch | How Can India Get Rid Of Petrol, Diesel? Nitin Gadkari Reveals Strategy

(MENAFN- Live Mint) "Union Minister of Road and Transport, Nitin Gadkari, has revealed the government's strategy of ending the usage of petrol and diesel in India. Gadkari, who is on an official tour to the Czech Republic, interacted with the Indian Diaspora community in Prague on Tuesday.Speaking about the Delhi pollution caused by burning of rice straw in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh, the minister said, \"...We have designed 186 plants that can make bio-CNG and bio-LNG from rice straw. Of the 186 plants, 36 are active currently\".Gadkari added, \"All the vehicles in Nagpur such as tractors, buses, and cars are running through bio-CNG...I have a dream to get India rid of petrol and diesel...It's a difficult dream to achieve but not impossible\".Gadkari said that a new Indian Oil's industry has come up in Panipat that will create bitumen and ethanol out of rice straw.\"...Can get 1,00,000 litre of ethanol from rice straw and 150 tonnes bio bitumen. India requires 80 lakh bio bitumen of which the 50 lakh tonnes target is achieved from Indian refineries and 30 lakh tonnes is imported...Now our farmers will not just feed us but will also help in energy generation,\" Gadkari said.Further Gadkari shared details about the Urban Extension Road 2 which is likely to be launched in the next 2-3 months. He said the new route in Delhi will reduce the time to reach Indira Gandhi Internal Airport from 2 hours to only 20 minutes. \"We have made another tunnel road that passes under the airstrip to T3 of IGI airport,\" he added.(Exciting news! Mint is now on WhatsApp Channel. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest financial insights! Click here!)The new Urban Extension Road 2 in Delhi is similar to the Atal tunnel.\"The travel time used be to over two hours from Manali to Rohtang pass but because of the Atal Tunnel, the travel time has shortened to 8 minutes\".\"We are making a new tunnel below Kargil called Zoji-la tunnel. Once completed, it will be Asia's longest tunnel at 11 km. The tentative cost of the project was ₹12,000 crore but we have completed 75% of the project in just ₹5,500 crore,\" Gadkari added.

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