Times View

NEW DELHI: Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday said he wants the pace of car sales in India to slow down as growth in vehicle sales, particularly those running on diesel, is choking roads and causing increased pollution.“You may not like it, but I wish it from my heart that your growth should be less. If this growth continues, I will need to add one more lane to national highways, which will cost a whopping Rs 80,000 crore,” Gadkari told stunned representatives of the car industry.He was speaking at an event called by lobby group Siam to work out sustainable growth programmes for the automobile industry. Petrol and diesel vehicles will need to make way for electric powertrains and engines running on other fuel variants such as ethanol and biofuels, road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday.“I am going to do it, whether you like it or not. I will bulldoze. Petrol diesel banaane walon kaa band-baajaa bajaanaa hai (We will take the makers of petrol/diesel engine vehicles to task,” Gadkari said.Gadkari, speaking in line with the government’s larger plan to have only electric vehicles in India by 2030, advised the industry to “innovate, research and work on new technologies” to find alternative transport solutions. “Come to public transport. You can bring solutions through diversification.”Citing an example, the minister said car usage has seen a rapid rise. “Even my chef comes in a car. There are too many cars, which is also leading to parking problems. I think the car industry should also go in for finding parking solutions, and look at an integrated approach.”To cut down on use of cars, especially in smaller towns, the minister said the government is planning to come out with a platform or an app – on the lines of Uber and Ola – that would facilitate the use of two-wheelers as a taxi.“If only one person needs to travel, why should he use a car?” Gadkari was scathing on the increasing sale of diesel and petrol cars, saying they were leading to a hefty import bill (for getting the fuel) as well as contributing to growing pollution on the roads.“I want the import bill and pollution to be reduced. These are big problems,” Gadkari said, adding that “we need to move towards alternative fuels” such as ethanol. "The government has decided to start 15 industries for second-generation ethanol. Ethanol can easily be produced from agro-based cotton straw, wheat straw, rice straw, bagass and bamboo. Alternative fuel is import substitute, cost effective and pollution free," Gadkari added.The minister said that the industry should increasingly focus on electric vehicles and added that cost of batteries has also been coming down.“A Cabinet note is being prepared that will facilitate the use of electric vehicles,” Gadkari said, seeking the launch of electric bikes, buses and cars.Hinting that Siam has been trying to go slow on transition towards cleaner fuels, Gadkari said, “I told my officials that you are influenced by Siam. I asked them to get consultants and introduce European and US standards, right from fuel to auto engineers.”The minister said the industry should dedicate a part of its profits towards research on finding out “cost-effective import substitutes and pollution-free technologies” and methodologies.“There is a big concern around pollution. Even the courts are very serious and strict on this issue,” he said, asking them to focus on cleaner technologies for larger commercial vehicles such as trucks and buses.“Diesel will not work. I will shut it down. You have to change.” Asking them to migrate to cleaner technologies, the minister warned them not to approach the government later on the ground that they have a huge stock of vehicles that do not run on alternative fuels. The minister also did not find merit in the demand of the auto industry against imposition of a stiffer cess on larger cars and SUVs. “Even after that, the sales have been going up. That means that people will still buy. In any case, we have been working towards increasing the purchasing power of the masses.”Responding to Gadkari's speech, outgoing Siam president Vinod Dasari said the industry fully backs the government's efforts to reducing imports and pollution. "Already, we are leapfrogging to BS6 from BS4 within three years, which is the shortest time anywhere in the world. However, what we are asking for is consistency in policy, which once formed must not be changed as the auto industry has long gestation period to introduce new technology,” he said.Nobody can have a legitimate quarrel with the idea that fossil fuel based vehicle engines must give way to cleaner, more environmentally sustainable technologies. The minister would therefore be absolutely right if he were to nudge car makers in that direction or even to vigorously push them towards adapting to that change. However, even if we agree that it will take more than gentle hints for an entire industry to change the way it has done business since its inception, there is really no need to resort to such threats. The government can achieve much more by incentivizing alternate fuel technologies and disincentivizing those based on fossil fuels. Fiscal nudges would be far more effective than threats.