All buses in India to be electric in next two years, says Nitin Gadkari

Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari Monday said that all buses in the country would be converted into electric within a span two years. "In the coming two years, all buses will be converted to electric," Gadkari said at the national conclave on energy efficiency in micro, small and medium enterprises in New Delhi.

Gadkari further reinstated the Centre's stance on electric vehicles (EVs) as well as the adoption of alternative sources of energy. "They will run on bio-CNG, ethanol, methanol." The Economic Times reported Gadkari as saying.

He, however, maintained that the government will not force the industry to make a transition to cleaner sources of mobility. He said that there was no need to ban petrol and diesel vehicles or make a switch to EVs mandatory.

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Gadkari had earlier said that the shift to electric mobility would happen naturally. Clearing the air on the government's plan for petrol and diesel vehicles, Gadkari earlier this month had said, "I would like to clarify that govt does not intend to ban petrol and diesel vehicles. We aren't going to do anything like that."

The union minister has time and again stressed on the significance of EVs and lent his support to India's auto industry which at present is reeling under its worst slowdown in two decades.

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Gadkari-led ministry of road transport and highways has also placed on hold the discussions on enforcing stern deadlines for gradual elimination of petrol and diesel-run two and three-wheelers in the country as was suggested by Niti Aayog.

The government think-tank Niti Aayog on June 21 had asked the automobile industry to submit a plan banning internal combustion engines (ICE)-fitted two-wheelers under 150 cc by 2025, and three-wheelers by 2023.

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