A glaring and current problem is the pollution plaguing the entire north Indian plains. The short-term solution for this issue exists in the quick and scaled-out expansion of biofuel-powered public transport across the country. Imagine bringing down pollution levels by up to 90% in carbon emissions by public transport vehicles, eliminating stubble burning by farmers, instead increasing their incomes, reducing our foreign trade deficit and adding nearly a million jobs (during a period when no jobs especially blue-collar one’s are being added) by the Central and state government’s deciding on one major policy initiative—reduce taxes on biofuel-driven buses and trucks available today.
India’s transport policy needs to prioritize renewable vehicular fuels for large transport; e-mobility alone will not achieve the ambition of creating a sustainable transport sector.
A ready solution is available in the form of biofuel-driven buses, which can be easily deployed at a short notice for all public transport purposes within cities and even for inter-city travel. Imagine being able to use 170 million tonnes of agricultural waste out of the 800 million tonnes generated to be used for ethanol production in the current situation. This could easily be ramped up to 250 million tonnes per year, to produce between 31-47 billion litres of ethanol by 2020, a radical increase from the current production of 2 billion litres. This will lead to a huge reduction in stubble burning because of an economic incentive available to remove and give the crop waste to biofuel plants.
