Sustainable bio-energy solutions can boost economy: Railway Minister
The Union Minister for Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu addressing the inauguration session of the Bio-Energy Summit 2015’, in New Delhi on November 17, 2015. The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan is also seen.Bio-energy solutions can be a huge boost to the Indian economy, given they are produced in an economically and sustainable manner, Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, as he pitched for an alternative growth and development model for the Indian Railways. Speaking at the ‘Bio-Energy Summit’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Prabhu stressed that the Indian Railways have already taken several steps to reduce its carbon footprints and are aggressively moving towards using renewable energy resources in its establishments. “The need of the hour is to emanate innovative ideas to manufacture bio-diesel by efficiently utilising waste resources and to also judiciously utilise our water and other crucial resources,” Prabhu said. Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan also emphasised that the government has been working in a concerted manner to further expand the scope of bio-fuel and bio-energy markets in India. “This can be achieved only through improved technology deployment, R&D initiatives and undertaking policies at various levels. The fundamental challenge is to establish the economic viability and its commercial usage of bio-fuels as an alternative fuel,” Pradhan said. Highlighting some of the government’s recent initiatives such as introduction of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for ethanol to promote its commercial viability, Pradhan said the Ministry is constantly working with the MNRE, MoP, and PMO to make this policy a success. “While we have only 1.5% blending at present, the MSP will boost blending level to 3%, thus boosting the scope and usage of bio-fuel,” Pradhan said. Upendra Tripathy, Secretary, Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, also came out in praise of India’s renewable energy prospects and singled out ‘financing’ as the key concern for the sector. “However, a 200 crore fund corpus developed by MNRE along with IREDA and the former’s consultations with bilateral agencies to work out schemes ensuring low cost financing, are expected to address the financing concern for the renewable energy sector,” Tripathy said. Earlier, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas on Tuesday had released a Draft Hydrocarbon policy and had sought industries’ views of the same before November 30.
November 18, 2015 | 2:57pm IST.
to success.