Batting for green hydrogen as a transport fuel, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Monday said there is a need to make India a country that will not be dependent on imports of petrol and diesel.

       Speaking at an event, Gadkari regretted that some countries are also using proceeds from the sale of petrol and diesel to finance terrorism.

       "Green hydrogen is better than petrol and diesel. The transport sector is witnessing a big change.

       "We want to make a country which will not be dependent upon the import of petrol and diesel but will export fuel," the road transport and highways minister said, adding that this was a nationalistic view.

       By importing petrol and diesel, Gadkari, who is known for his frank views, said, "We are making countries richer which also finance terrorism".

       The road transport and highways minister, however, did not name any country.

       He further said the reduction of import of petrol and diesel can solve a lot of problems being faced by the country.

       Gadkari said it is unfortunate that India has to import aluminium and copper even though the country has an abundance of these metals.

       "Economy and environment are important... there is a need to protect environment and ecology, but development and infrastructure work should not be stopped," he emphasised.

       Referring to the issue of recent power shortages in some parts of the country, he said the situation of state-run Discoms are very bad.

       He noted that in the near future, India would need more power as there is a probability that the economic growth of the country will accelerate.

       "So, probably in December, January, February, March, April and May, we may face the problem of power shortage.

       "We were surplus in power, now we are facing power shortage," he said.

       (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)