Sri Lanka and Bangladesh keen to import ethanol from India

New Delhi: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said Sri Lanka and Bangladesh have expressed keen interest to import ethanol from India.

The road transport and highways minister said that he discussed about ethanol with both governments of Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

“I was able to discuss this matter with the PM of Bangladesh and even the Sri Lankan minister. Both are keenly interested in import of ethanol from India for adding ethanol into petrol in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Gadkari said while addressing the CII Conference on Bio-Energy here.

The minister also said that he will have a meeting with Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri in 15 days where a discussion is likely to be held on a policy for starting ethanol pumps in the country.

The future of ethanol is very good, the minister said.

The government, he said, is eager to purchase more ethanol and also convinced to encourage the use of alternate fuel. “Because of green fuel the pollution problem is also going to resolve,” Gadkari explained.

He added that a slew of top automakers is already in talks with him to make engines that run completely on ethanol and launch different types of vehicles with that capacity.

On one hand, the country has huge agricultural surpluses in crops like sugar, corn, rice, and wheat, which can be important sources of biofuel and on the other, its import bill of fossil fuels runs into Rs 16 lakh crore, said the minister.

Even more important is to deal with the dangerous level of air pollution, plaguing Delhi and other cities. This can be addressed to a significant extent if ethanol and alternative biofuels can substitute the fossil fuels in the country, the minister said.

“Today, we need a policy that can help us to substitute imports, is cost-effective, pollution free and indigenous. For any solution to be effective it must have a proven technology, economic viability, availability of raw materials and marketability. Ethanol fits the bill in all the four categories,” Gadkari said.

Urging the investors to invest in ethanol, the minister said the ethanol economy is primed for fast growth in the next five-six years.