Shift to alternative fuel trucks: Nitin Gadkari

NEW DELHI: Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday urged vehicle manufacturers and logistics companies to opt for trucks that run on alternative fuels rather than diesel-fuelled ones to cut down pollution, reduce logistics costs, and decrease India's dependence on imported fossil fuel.

"My appeal to you all is - don't go for diesel trucks, think about alternative fuel and biofuel. It's economically viable," Gadkari said, while addressing industry leaders. He added that govt is encouraging the use of alternative fuels such as biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, and others.

On the need to promote the use of alternative fuel, the minister said India spends around Rs 22 lakh crore on import of fossil fuel. "It's an economic challenge and impacts our environment as well... By building better roads and using alternative fuel, we can bring down the logistics cost to a single digit of 9%. We are confident of achieving this by year-end. That will create great opportunities for our industry, manufacturing activities, and exports," Gadkari said at Mahindra Logistics presents ET Edge Supply Chain Management Fest 2025.

He said automobile majors are now manufacturing electric trucks and these will be launched soon, adding that his ministry is planning to have "flash charging" electric trucks on the Delhi-Jaipur and Delhi-Amritsar corridors. Flash-charging technology allows vehicles to be charged in just a few seconds at the stops with the overhead flash-chargers.