With the vehicles run on petrol and diesel now converted on CNG, Nagpur will be pollution free and more green, said Minister for Road Transport, Highways and Shipping; Nitin Gadkari.
He was speaking after inaugurating the CNG bus at the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) Civil Lines office on Saturday.
Maharashtra Energy Minister Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Mayor Ms Nanda Jichkar, MLAs Sudhakar Deshmukh, Krishna Khopde and Sudhakar Kohale, Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar and NMC Transport Committee Chairman Bunty Kukde were prominently present on the occasion.
Gadkari further said that bio-waste generated from various markets of Nagpur and farms nearby, besides sugarcane molasses help to produce bio-CNG. Young entrepreneurs should take initiatives and set up these kinds of projects in the rice growing districts of Bhandara, Gadchiroli and Chandrapur, Gadkari appealed.
The Union Transport Ministry has started a pilot project of running busses on methanol in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Guwahati. Â Water transportation is being carried out through engine run on ethanol in Ganga and Brahmaputra. These ventures have considerably brought down the fuel cost, Gadkari said.
Similarly, the Scania buses run in Nagpur on 100 per cent ethanol are being discussed in the entire country, the Nagpur MP informed.
The life of these green buses in Nagpur would be 15 years, which would save a whopping amoung of Rs 75 crore annually of NMC, Gadkari informed. Nagpur will have total 50 CNG buses and NMC officials should also run their vehicles on CNG and set an example, Gadkari suggested.
A large number of corporators, people’s representatives, NMC officials and employees and local residents attended the programme.