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UP Global Investors Summit: Nitin Gadkari says Uttar Pradesh has highest potential to make India an energy exporter
Uttar Pradesh, Nitin Gadkari said, was the best destination for investment and urged entrepreneurs to invest in the field of automobile industry, e-mobility and setting up vehicle scrappage centres
Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Saturday said that Uttar Pradesh had the highest potential to make India an energy exporting country in the coming years.
“PM Modi’s vision is to turn India into an energy exporting country and the one state that the biggest potential to help India realise this vision is none other than Uttar Pradesh,” he said. The minister was addressing a session on ‘E-Mobility, Vehicle and Future Mobility’ on the second day of the UP Global Investors Summit. India’s annual energy import bill, he added, stood at a whopping ₹16 lakh crore.
Pointing out that air pollution was a big problem with the transport sector alone contributing 40% of it, the minister said the country needed to make a policy that was import- substitute, cost-effective, pollution-free and indigenous. Promotion of e-mobility, he said, could be the right step in this direction.
Uttar Pradesh, Nitin Gadkari said, was the best destination for investment and urged entrepreneurs to invest in the field of automobile industry, e-mobility and setting up vehicle scrappage centres in the state.
“Investment opportunities in the field of e-mobility in UP are enormous due to the abundance of water, energy, human resources, and excellent connectivity,” he said.
He further said country’s turnover in the automobile sector was ₹7.8 lakh crore, employing four crore people and giving maximum revenue as GST to the Centre and the states.
“Our aim is to increase the turnover in the automobile industry to a figure of 15 lakh crore in the next 5 years,” he said, adding “U.P. can play an important role in this.”
He said there was no market scarcity for the automobile sector and assured investors they could invest in the sector without any hesitation.
“Currently, in the years to come the number of vehicles in the country will exceed the population in India,” he said. “The scrapage policy will further give push to the automobile industry,” he added.
Gadkari said that at present there were 20.8 lakh electric vehicles in the country. It has increased by 300% as compared to 2021.
“The government aims to increase the number of electric vehicles in the country to two crore by 2030 and there will be 50 lakh government vehicles,” he announced.
“The number of electric vehicles in Uttar Pradesh is currently 4.50 lakh. There are many startups starting here in this field. If this is promoted, 10 lakh people will get employment in U.P,” he added. He suggested U.P. adopt London’s e-vehicle transport model to run luxury buses.
Gadkari said that the government had also taken the initiative to promote the production of green hydrogen from water and biomass and there was a lot of potential in Uttar Pradesh.
Lauding UP government’s efforts to create more job opportunities through industrialisation, he said “Yogi Adityanath’s vision for making Uttar Pradesh a developed state is on the ‘appropriate highway’ and his car is running with such a speed that UP would soon get rid of poverty and unemployment.”
Addressing the session, CM Yogi Adityanath stated that the future belonged to e-mobility. He also said that price of e-vehicles would come down as the demand for them increased. “We have rolled out a new EV Policy to promote environment-friendly e-vehicles in the state,” he said.
