Road Transport & Highways Ministerhopes to have a lasting solution for Delhi’s pollution woes in just over a year. He expects to start building 30 km of roads a day soon and also build a highway to Bangkok. Gadkari outlines his plans in an exclusive interview with ET.Let them try and see what the results are. But as far as vehicular pollution in Delhi is concerned, I’ll be giving a permanent solution soon. The Eastern Expressway on the outer periphery of Delhi will be constructed in 400 days. PM has given us this instruction and we are trying hard to deliver. Once it becomes operational, 50% of trucks entering Delhi would be able to bypass the capital. It will decongest and will significantly curb the rising vehicular pollution in Delhi.We are also trying to provide 5 lakh litres of bio-diesel to the capital…The government will be going big on cars run on ethanol. We’ll be running cars on 100% ethanol. My ministry will come out with a notification by January 26 saying that cars with 100% ethanol will be allowed. It will cut vehicular pollution by 80%. We’ll ask carmakers to manufacture cars with flex-engines.We’ll also be getting buses, cars and two-wheelers on lithium ion battery in two years. It will save us a lot on imported fuel cost. I’m gifting two such buses to Parliament.Crores of cars in Brazil run on ethanol. All leading car manufacturers have flex-engines, which can run both on petrol and ethanol. Even Honda and Yamaha motorcycles there have flex engines. We’ll have same cars here. Currently, we have 5% ethanol mixed in petrol. It will be increased to 22% and then to 100%. Currently, 130 out of 500 sugar mills are manufacturing ethanol in India. There is a need to convert all mills towards ethanol production… It will uplift the rural economy. My formula is to provide a cost-efficient and pollution-free substitute that will also reduce our imports.But we need to remember that Delhi’s pollution woes are not just because of vehicular emissions. The farm waste being burned in Punjab and Haryana also needs to be controlled. The dust from construction sites also adds to the problem.Within two years, roads and shipping sectors will contribute 2% to the GDP . Recently, we had commissioned a study of 12 major ports in India. The motive was to find out ways of increasing efficiency and making Indian ports more competitive. The Boston Consulting Group was asked to do that study. They gave us 120 recommendations. Out of that, we have already implemented 30 and I can assure you that due to the changes being implemented, our major ports will be able to make a profit of Rs 6,000 crore.We have tied up with Samsung as technology partner for building LNG ships at the Cochin Shipyard . We are looking at building nine ships. Each ship would cost Rs 2,000 crore. We are also building broader barges at Kandla, Goa and JNPT, Mumbai, so that ships with 2 lakh tonne capacity can enter the country.We have approved the shipbuilding policy. We’ll give Rs 4,000 crore as financial assistance package to encourage shipbuilding and ship repair industry in the country. The government has also granted infrastructure status to the shipbuilding industry. This policy would be in place for a period of 10 years. The plan that includes financial assistance directly to shipyards was approved. Other aspects we are also working on include cruise tourism…I want India to be on the map of cruise tourism.In the last one -and-a-half years, shipping and inland waterways we have developed at a very good growth rate. It will have a multiplier effect on the economy. But there’s still a lot of work needed to be done as we are yet to provide good domestic connectivity through waterways. An industrialist had recently told the PM that it’s easier to transport goods from Mumbai to London than Mumbai to Delhi. It shows how alarming the condition is. China’s cost advantage comes from the fact that 47% of their freight is on wa ter. Transporting goods through roads costs Rs 1.5 per km, whereas through waterways the cost is 30 paise per km. We have also introduced this policy of doing all shipping work in dollar denomination. It will save a lot of cost in interest and will make us more competitive internationally.We are trying to provide highway connectivity between India and Bangkok. The plan will take some time, but it will happen. It will give our exports a boost. We are also connecting Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Myanmar with highways. The Asian Development Bank has given us a loan of Rs 30,000 crore for the same. We have also signed a water transportation agreement with Bangladesh that will save us a lot of cost.Roads have shown significant improvement. The current rate of construction has gone up to 18 km per day. The unofficial target is to take it to 30 km per day. We have planned to build several expressways. The longest would be Delhi-Katra, spanning over 600 km. It will cut the travel time to five hours. All roads to be constructed will be cemented and all of them would be green highways. For Delhi-Meerut expressway, we are going to use garbage from Delhi landfill site for road construction. The sand can be made available by dredging the Yamuna. Complete policy clean-up has been done in roads.