Bamboo is white coal, says Gadkari at Bans Utsav

Nagpur: Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Saturday hailed bamboo as "white coal", emphasizing its potential as a sustainable, eco-friendly, and economically empowering resource. He urged stakeholders to expand bamboo use in energy, construction, handicrafts, and rural entrepreneurship while speaking at the inauguration of Rashtriya Bans Utsav at AIIMS-Nagpur on Saturday.

Making a push for mass use of bamboo as an eco-friendly material, Gadkari said he had encouraged his son to use it as a fuel to fire his power plant, instead of coal and ensured it was made mandatory to use 20% of eco-friendly biomass in thermal power plants to push bamboo use. "One should learn from China, where the bamboo sector provides employment to 50 lakh persons," he said.


However, the minister said it's also needed to ensure the cost of bamboo is reduced so that it remains competitive. "Coal has a calorific value of 4,000 and costs Rs 4,000 a tonne. Rates of bamboo need to match that. It has been now planned to cut bamboo from wasteland where it is not needed, cut it into 8mm pieces, and transport it in trucks. An electric truck can be a solution for reducing cost of transport. It can bring down the cost of fuel by more than 10 times than that of a truck operating on diesel," he said.

Gadkari said he had suggested to Congress' Ashok Chavan when he was industries minister to give priority to bamboo products. The cost can be lowered by maximising production, he said.

Katalyser Foundation Training Programmes

Katalyser Foundation, a Nagpur-based organisation, will be holding a series of training and awareness programmes on use of bamboo from February 22 to 27. "Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee declared February 27 as the national bamboo day. In a bid to take the message forwards, Katalyser Foundation is holding workshops for the five-day period as a part of Rashtriya Bans Utsav, which would end on February 27, the national bamboo day," said Ashish Kaswa, the organisation's co-founder.