Automobile giants Toyota, Maruti Suzuki and Hyundai have assured the government they will bring flex engine vehicles in six months, a move that can reduce India’s dependence on crude oil, shorten a huge import bill and also lessen emissions.
Flex engines allow vehicles to run on 100 per cent petrol or 100 per cent ethanol.
Union Minister for Road, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari at a sugar and ethanol conference Sunday said the Centre was also exploring ways to increase the use of ethanol in the aviation sector in order to reduce transportation energy costs. To this end, he called upon sugar factories to make a shift to the conversion of sugar into ethanol.
“If sugar production goes ahead as it does now, it will be harmful for the industry in times to come,” he warned leaders of sugar and allied industries saying, “what is good for our future is to reduce the production of sugar and increase production of ethanol.”