Time up for petrol, diesel ... India to get vehicles with flex-fuel engines soon

New Delhi: Union Minister Nitin Gadkari is making many efforts to promote the automobile industry. 

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Addressing a program in this regard, the minister said on Monday that he would issue an order in the next two-three days, which would make it mandatory for car manufacturers to install flex-fuel engines in vehicles.

The minister said that India imports petroleum products worth Rs 8 lakh crore every year, and if the country becomes dependent on flex fuel, its import bill will increase to Rs 25 lakh crore in the next five years.

During the program, Gadkari said, "In order to reduce the import of fossil fuels, we are going to sign a file in the next 2-3 days, in which the car manufacturers (who can run on more than one fuel), installing a flex-fuel engine will be mandatory."

Flex-fuel is an alternative fuel made from a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.

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Gadkari said top executives from Toyota Motor Corporation, Suzuki and Hyundai Motor India have assured him that they will introduce their vehicles with Flex engines.

He also said that India is the fastest-growing economy in the world.

Apart from this, Pune is currently the only city in India where there are three ethanol stations. On June 5 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated three E-100 ethanol dispensing stations. 

Earlier, Gadkari had appealed to the automobile industry to manufacture flexi-fuel engines. At present there are only a few ethanol-powered vehicles in India, which have been spotted in Pune.

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Flex-fuel vehicles are also known as FFVs in the automobile world. Its engine can run by mixing petrol and ethanol in different proportions. However, vehicles running on flex-fuel are not yet available in India.