Bangladesh, Sri Lanka keen to import ethanol from India: Gadkari

Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are keen to start importing ethanol from India. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road and Transport Highways said that the issue has already been discussed with the governments of these countries.

“I was able to discuss this matter with PM of Bangladesh and even the Sri Lankan minister. Both are keenly interested about import of ethanol from India for adding ethanol into petrol in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka,” Gadkari said at a CII-organised conference on bio-energy. Gadkari will also meet Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri to discuss the issue further.

The Narendra Modi government has laid the emphasis on increasing production of ethanol from various items such as sugar molasses, sugarcane and other materials which have sugar content. India has already reached the set target of blending 10 per cent ethanol with petrol. The target is to touch 20 per cent blending by 2025. It was only 1.53 per cent in 2013-14.

The increased use of ethanol will boost India’s renewable energy segment while leading to a huge saving of foreign exchange.

Last year Toyota launched its flex fuel version of Corolla Altis. Many other companies are also gearing up launch hybrid vehicles. Flex-fuel vehicles (FFV) are essentially automobiles with engines that can run on flexible fuel which can be a combination of petrol mixed with ethanol or even ethanol alone.