November 12, 2001

'20'

    Government has decided to expand the production and distribution of gasohol (a product obtained from 5% blending of ethanol with petrol) to cover the entire country in two phases. This decision was taken at a meeting held today under the chairmanship of Shri Ram Naik, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas to review the ethanol – petrol ( gasohol) pilot projects. Speaking at the meeting, the Minister said that in the first phase, 8 states which are the major producer of the sugarcane in the country, would be covered. These states are UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. The remaining states would be covered in the second phase.

    Shri Ram Naik also announced that three pilot projects launched by Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas ( 2 in Maharashtra and 1 in UP ) have proved successful and it was, therefore, logical to extend it to the whole of India in phases. In the pilot projects, 12,000 KLs petrol blended with ethanol was sold through 329 petrol pumps in ten districts. The three pilot projects would now undertake projects/field trials to examine the blending of ethanol in petrol to a extent of 10% within six months after taking necessary clearances.

    In his concluding remarks, the Minister also announced that research & development in respect of blending ethanol with diesel at IOC’s R&D Centre have indicated encouraging results. As more studies and trials are required, government would sanction Rs. 4 crore for accelerating R&D efforts. This would be completed within six months.

    The Minister observed that the administrative bottlenecks at State level have been reduced but not quite completely. He asked the representatives of State governments of Maharashtra and UP to expedite removing such bottlenecks and directed oil companies to report progress to him within next 15 days. The Minister would also convene a Minister level meeting of the Union Ministries of Agriculture, Chemicals & Fertilizers, Food & Consumer Affair, Revenue and Road & Highways and the Ministers of Cooperation, Excise and Sugar form the States of Maharashtra and UP to sort out all other issues concerning them.

    The Minister expressed satisfaction that there was surplus of ethanol available in the country which can be further increased to meet needs of the oil sector by utilizing the idle capacity of distilleries. It was also pointed that the sugarcane production can be increased both by increasing sugarcane acreage and the productivity. He said with these steps the sugarcane growing farmers can get benefit of better returns and the oil sector additional source to supplement the availability of hydrocarbon in the country.

    The meeting was attended by Shri M.K.Annasaheb Patil, Minister of State for Rural Development, Shri Anna Dange, MLC, Maharashtra and Shri V. P. Rane, Director General, Vasantdada Sugar Institute, Maharashtra. Shri V.N.Kaul, Secretary, Petroleum & Natural Gas also attended the meeting alongwith members of the Monitoring Committee of the pilot projects, representatives of the governments of Maharashtra and UP and various oil companies.