Flexible-Fuel, Musical Horns On The Cards For Indian Roads

Pune: The Government will issue an order in the next three to four months, making it mandatory for the carmakers to introduce flex-fuel engines in vehicles.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Friday he wishes to see the country get rid of petrol and diesel consumption in his lifetime by switching to locally-produced ethanol.

The Minister for Road Transport and Highways was speaking at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a flyover in Pune, where Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar was also present.

“I am going to issue an order in the next three to four months, in which carmakers – from BMW, Mercedes to TATA and Mahindra – will be asked to make flex engines,” he said.

Gadkari said he had asked Bajaj and TVS companies to introduce flex engines in their vehicles, and also instructed them not to approach him until and unless they do so, after which they came up with an ethanol-flex engine.

Flex-fuel, or flexible fuel, is an alternative fuel made of a combination of gasoline and methanol or ethanol.

“I have a wish. I would like to stop the petrol and diesel use in the country in my lifetime and our farmers can give the alternative to this in the form of ethanol,” he said.

Gadkari added that to tackle the issue of noise pollution caused by honking, rules would be framed to make car horns sound like musical instruments.

“I have ordered all the carmakers to make horns using the sounds of musical instruments,” he said.