New Delhi
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) has issued a draft notification facilitating using 12% and 15% ethanol-blended gasoline as automotive fuels. The government has invited comments from stakeholders within a period of thirty days.
The draft notification mentions that the Ministry would type-approve the newly manufactured gasoline vehicles based on prevailing gasoline emission norms. The new vehicles would have spark-ignition engines compatible with ethanol-gasoline blends of E-12 (12%) and E-15 (15%).
Nitin Gadkari, Minister for Road Transport and Highways, had mentioned that the government might make flex-fuel engines mandatory for the automobile industry. He observed that automakers in the US, Brazil and Canada were producing flex-fuel engines and the vehicles could be an alternative to customers using 100% petrol or bio-ethanol.
The Union Minister further noted that making flex-fuel engines mandatory will boost the country’s economy because India had a surplus of corn, sugar and wheat. Post export and domestic allocation, the rest can be converted to ethanol which is beneficial as it was an import substitute, pollution-free, indigenous and a cost-effective option.
Last year the government set a target of reaching 10% ethanol blending in petrol by 2022 and 20% by 2030. Prime Minister Narendra Modi advanced the 20% target to 2025 to cut pollution and reduce import dependence.
Source – ET Auto
Image Source: Image by Bernd Müller from Pixabay
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