TIL Desk/Business/Mumbai/ Union Roads Minister Nitin Gadkari today said the government will be soon announcing a policy which calls for 15 per cent blending of methanol in petrol to make it cheaper and also reduce pollution. “In the upcoming Parliament session, I am announcing a policy of blending 15 per cent methanol in petrol,” Gadkari said at an event.
He said methanol gets made from coal and costs only Rs 22 per litre as against the prevailing price of about Rs 80 per litre for petrol and added that China is making the coal byproduct for Rs 17 per litre itself. “The costs will go down, pollution will go down,” the Union minister said.
He said factories in and around Mumbai, including Deepak Fertilisers and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF), can generate methanol. Gadkari said Swedish auto major Volvo has got a special engine to the financial capital which runs on methanol and using the locally available methanol, he will be attempting to run 25 buses entirely on the fuel.
The Union minister said ethanol should also be used more widely and said that he has suggested his cabinet colleague in-charge of the petroleum ministry to look at this rather than building petrol refineries that cost over Rs 70,000 crore. Gadkari said the total investment opportunity on ethanol alone if Rs 1.50 lakh crore.
