India will be top auto market in 5 years: Gadkari

BETTING BIG ON the potential of green technologies and an unwavering political will to transform and multiply India's mobility and energy infrastructure, Union minister for road transport and highways Nitin Gadkari on Tuesday said the country could become the world's largest automobile market in the next 5 years, with a likely rapid proliferation of electric cars and vehicles run on "flexfuel" engines.

India pipped Japan to become the third-largest automobile market after China and the US in 2022 with sales of 4.25 million vehicles.

Even as highway and railway projects are increasingly financed out of Budget, the minister reiterated that finances aren't a hurdle for accelerating the pace of India's massive infrastructure upgrade.

Speaking after giving away the FE CFO Awards here, the minister said use of the right inputs, proven technologies and innovative financing models like the one pioneered for the Mumbai-Pune Expressway over two decades ago, will at once help reduce costs and improve quality and durability of infrastructure.

He also underlined how the infrastructure policy is increasingly being linked to the agriculture sector, in a manner that would benefit all stakeholders farmers, developers and users.

The country's "surplus food grains" production and resultant storage issues could be turned into an opportunity to raise the production and use of bio-fuels, he noted.