- The Bengaluru-Chennai express highway will be launched by this year-end or January 2024.
- It will prove crucial in reducing the travel time between the two metros to just two hours.
- Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said the transport ministry is in the process of building an electric cable highway between Delhi and Jaipur.
- Chennai will soon be connected with Delhi through the access-controlled highway project.
- Mr. Gadkari, who earlier launched the Ashok Leyland’s IeV series, India’s first electric commercial vehicle in its category.
- “My dream is to ensure the production of methanol trucks in India,”- Gadkari
The Bengaluru-Chennai express highway will be launched by this year-end or January 2024 and it will prove crucial in reducing the travel time between the two metros to just two hours, Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari said. Also, Chennai will soon be connected with Delhi through the access-controlled highway project, he said.
Mr. Gadkari, who earlier launched the Ashok Leyland’s IeV series, India’s first electric commercial vehicle in its category, said there is a great requirement for electric buses in the country. “We are making good roads. We are connecting Delhi to Chennai via Surat, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Kurnool, Chennai (and beyond), Kanyakumari, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, and also to Bengaluru and Hyderabad, through the access-controlled highways project,” he said.
His ministry is in the process of building an electric cable highway between the national capital and Jaipur, he said, and urged Ashok Leyland and other players to produce vehicles that could use biofuels or alternative energy, such as e-vehicles, in a big way and help the Centre achieve the goal of a five-trillion-dollar economy.
“I have been working on the diversification of agriculture to the energy and power sector since 2004. Ten days ago, I launched a 100 percent bio-ethanol vehicle. In Bengaluru, I launched Ashok Leyland’s vehicle which can run on methanol-blended fuel. My dream is to ensure the production of methanol trucks in India,” Mr. Gadkari said. The Indian Oil Corporation is producing bio-ethanol-based fuel for automobiles and ethanol aviation fuel too. “Soon, the farmers of Tamil Nadu could help produce ethanol fuel from food grains,” the minister said.
He said he was satisfied with the pace of NH projects and that the work on the Chennai Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway project would begin soon. The IeV series launched by the minister are India’s first electric commercial vehicles in its category and aim to provide efficient and eco-friendly solutions for last-minute transportation needs.
At the event, Nitin Gadkari said hydrogen as an alternative fuel was the future. “The import of fossil fuel is a big problem for the country in terms of economy and pollution. So, it is imperative to explore and utilize biofuels for sustenance, and reduce the logistics cost to single digit in about three to four years, from about 16 percent at present,” he said.
Further, this would make India competitive and a global player in exports, Mr. Gadkari added.
(With inputs from agencies)
