India to be world's top manufacturing hub in 5 years, says Gadkari

Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday said India will become a hub for automobile manufacturing in the next five years and that efforts on developing technologies involving ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, CNG, LNG electric and green hydrogen were on.

New Delhi: Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said India would transform into an automobile manufacturing hub in the next five years. "Almost all reputed automobile brands are present in India. As we are working on technologies involving ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Liquefied natural gas (LNG), electric and green hydrogen, I believe that India will become a hub for automobile manufacturing in next five years," the minister said, adding it would also create several employment opportunities.

Gadkari said vehicle scrapping of vehicles under the new policy would be done in a scientific manner with a focus on recycling. He said the process has been simplified for people, made hassle-free sans RTO visit, and its implementation will be done electronically. The new policy will also rope in investments to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore towards setting up automated testing stations (ATS) and building registered vehicle scrapping facilities (RVSF) pan India, the minister said.

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The minister said the proposed concession in road tax will be a rule, instead of an advisory for states, and that the Centre is authorized to take a decision on the same. As per the policy, a 25 per cent cut in road tax for personal vehicles and up to 15 per cent for commercial vehicles has been proposed. His response comes in the wake of some Opposition-ruled states, having raised a query on the draft notification issued earlier, saying the Centre cannot direct how much tax a state should levy.

Recently, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the Gujarat Investor Summit had said, "Be it ethanol, hydrogen fuel or electric mobility, with these priorities of the government, active participation of the industry is very important. In the midst of this change, it is equally important to protect our environment, our land, our resources and our raw material."