Gandhinagar, July 9 (IANS) Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday that the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has begun pilot hydrogen mobility projects on 10 transport corridors across India as part of its efforts to reduce dependence on imported fossil fuels and promote cleaner public transport.

Speaking after inaugurating ‘Prawas 5.0’, the multimodal transport show organised by the Bus and Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI) in Gandhinagar, Gadkari added the Ministry was working with the automobile industry to accelerate the adoption of alternative fuels and advanced transport technologies.

“The industry is working very well on alternative fuels, bio-fuels, ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, LNG, electric and hydrogen. At the same time, our Ministry is conducting a pilot project on 10 routes for hydrogen trials,” he said.

The pilot corridors include Greater Noida-Delhi-Agra, Bhubaneswar-Konark-Puri, Ahmedabad-Vadodara-Surat, Sahibabad-Faridabad-Delhi, Pune-Mumbai via the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, Jamshedpur-Kalinganagar, Thiruvananthapuram-Kochi, Kochi-Edappally, Jamnagar-Ahmedabad and Visakhapatnam-Voyyuru.

Hydrogen refuelling stations have been planned at strategic locations, including Greater Noida, Bhubaneswar, Vadodara, Faridabad, Rajkot, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Voyyuru.

Gadkari said clean transport had become a national priority as the transport sector accounts for around 40 per cent of the country’s air pollution.

He added that India imports fossil fuels worth about Rs 22 lakh crore annually, making it necessary to adopt technologies that are pollution-free, cost-effective and based on indigenous resources.

“To save on imports and reduce pollution, it is necessary for public policy to focus on import substitutes, cost-effectiveness, pollution-free and indigenous solutions. This is the most important agenda for the government,” he said, urging transport operators to support the transition.

The Union Minister also stressed that future public transport systems must combine cleaner fuels with better passenger services.

“Timely service and last-mile connectivity are very crucial. We must have a good and comfortable transport system from a technological standpoint. This is the time we should have world-class technology,” Gadkari said.

The event was attended by State Ministers Jitu Vaghani and Kantilal Amrutiya, Ministers from Uttarakhand and West Bengal, BOCI President Prasanna Patwardhan and representatives of the transport and automobile industries.

–IANS

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