India should aim to become a net exporter of energy with the growth of Hydrogen as a fuel, Union road transport minister Nitin Gadkari said on Wednesday.

“Our focus is to harness the domestic sources of energy to become a net energy exporter from an energy importer,” he told reporters on the sidelines at the launch of Green Hydrogen run vehicles. Gadkari flagged off the Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Toyota Mirai. Toyota Kirloskar Motor and International Center for Automotive Technology also signed an agreement to conduct a pilot project to study and evaluate the performance of the car on Indian roads.

“This (Hydrogen) is an indigenous fuel. The import bill of the country is around ₹8 lakh crore, if it continues like this, the import bill will cross ₹25 lakh crore. The economy will be affected if import substitution does not become the norm,” he said.

Gadkari said he has requested the Power Ministry for incentives to produce Green Hydrogen. “They have agreed to waive off transmission duty and some other charges for Green Hydrogen,” he said.”Industries such as cement can use Green Hydrogen and India hopes to become a country that exports the fuel. This is a deviation from the present situation where we import 80 per cent of our fuel need. There are options of using floating solar panels for making Hydrogen,” he added. Gadkari said a policy for electrolysers will soon be formed,adding electrolysers currently cost ₹1.2 crore a piece.

On production targets, Gadkari said, ” The Hydrogen car is here, and around 25 to 30 green hydrogen charging stations will be set up in Delhi.”

“I profess that in the coming one or two years that people will not buy petrol and diesel cars and two wheelers. The cost of Internal Combustion Engine auto rickshaws and electric auto rickshaws will be the same in this period.”