Pune, Nov 24 (UNI) Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday said that his Ministry was in the final stage of finalising the new
National Policy on bio-fuels.
Addressing a conference of industry experts and policy-makers on 'Ethanol As a Transport Fuel' organised by the Central Institute of Road Transport (CIRT) in association with the Indian Federation of Green Energy (IFGE) and supported by the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways here, he said, "The Ministry is in the process of finalising the new National Policy on Bio-fuels. We had a consultative meeting of all the stakeholders at New Delhi recently and are evaluating all the feedback and suggestions given so far. New policy will provide complete off-take guarantee to the producers."
Mr Pradhan further said that the use of ethanol for blending with petrol had increased to 111 crore litres in 2015-2016 from 15.4 crore litres in 2011.
Similarly, the rate of return has been upwardly revised by more than 40 per cent to benefit the farmers, he informed.
"We can emphatically state that ethanol has the potential to substantially cut down the crude import bill of the country," he said.
Mr Pradhan further said that the government was committed to doubling the income of farmers beyond the stipulated minimum support price (MSP) mechanism, and help promote the farmers to monetise their farm
and agri wastes as feedstock to ethanol bio-refineries, he pointed.
The Minister was all praise for Pune city and its intellectual prowess and said, "Pune has always been the land of creativity, innovation and intellectuals since ancient times. It has been the epicenter of all the research and development activities in different domains and also in the area of alternative green fuel. Most of the technologies to convert agri waste into green fuel have been developed in Pune."
Mr Pradhan complimented organisers of the conference and suggested greater co-operation and collaboration between civil society, researchers, farmers, industry and all other stakeholders to promote
ethanol economy.
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