New Delhi: Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, Nitin Gadkari, laid out a vision to transform India into the world's top automobile hub within the next decade, at the Spain-India Business Summit held in Mumbai.

Citing India's competitive advantages in production costs and labour, Gadkari expressed confidence in the country's capacity to become a leading global player.

"The size of our automobile industry is 22 lakh crores. The size of China's automobile industry is 44 lakh crores and the US is 78 lakh crores. Now, our aim is to make India's automobile industry within 10 years number one in the world." said Gadkari.

Gadkari said India's production cost is much less than other countries, but high logistic cost is an issue for India. With the growth of infrastructure, better roads and ports our logistic costs are coming down.

"USA and European countries, it is 12%. And in the Indian scenario, it goes up to 14 to 16%. So, this is the first time we have decided to reduce this cost. We now have a lot of express highways, 36 green access control express highways. Our NHI is triple-A rating," Gadkari added.

In discussing India's strides in sustainable technology, Gadkari spoke about innovative water and waste management initiatives.

Gadkari explained, "We have implemented the water sewage, there is a 90 ml dislodge of Mathura converting into clean water and giving that water to the Indian oil refinery in Mathura. First time when I was water resource minister, we planned it for a hybrid annuity. 40% from the government and 60% from the investor."

Gadkari also addressed India's energy independence goals, acknowledging the country's heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels, amounting to INR 22 lakh crore annually.

He stated, "It is one of the important economic challenges to our country that we have the import of fossil fuel of 22 lakh crores. We have got electric cars, electric buses, electric scooters, electric now auto rickshaw and now electric trucks also are ready and electric tractors are ready. So we are making alternative fuel and biofuel."

He emphasised India's commitment to alternative and biofuels as solutions, noting recent advancements in electric vehicles, including electric cars, buses, scooters, trucks, and tractors.

Gadkari said, "As a success story, we already have a global alliance in G20 and a lot of new technology has already been invented. So we are making ethanol from corn, sugarcane juice, molasses, B molasses, C molasses and food grain."

He added, “And that is the reason that by making this alternative and biofuel, I am confident that we will reduce the cost of the fuel and making good express highway, our target is within 2 years, our logistic cost will be 9%, single digit, by which 100% the economic viability, 100% is going to increase. In the Indian scenario, there is a lot of transparency in our system, the fast track decision making process, and the dream of the Prime Minister is to make India Atmanirbhar Bharat."

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