Watch: Nitin Gadkari taking a ride in Toyota's hydrogen-powered car

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways is pushing alternative fuel options for transport. A pilot project in India is being carried out by Toyota and the Central Government, to find if hydrogen is a feasible option or not. Nitin Gadkari wants to use hydrogen for big vehicles such as buses, public transport and trucks. Now, the minister was recently spotted riding as a passenger in the Toyota Mirai which is a hydrogen-powered vehicle brought to India for the pilot project.

The video clip was shared by Nitin Gadkari on Twitter and he wrote “Green Hydrogen is the future of the country!". In the video, Gadkari can be seen in the Toyota Mirai. He explains the three types of hydrogen. First, there is the Petroleum-Hydrogen which is generated from petroleum. Then there is Black-Hydrogen which comes from coal. The third one is Green-Hydrogen which is generated from water and organic waste.

He says that “Mirai" in Hindi means future. He hopes to generate Green-Hydrogen from sewage water and organic waste and then export it also. The process to extract Green-Hydrogen has already started and within a year, there would be more vehicles that would run on hydrogen.

The minister also talks about the flex-fuel vehicle that was recently unveiled, it was the Toyota Corolla Altis. He hopes to bring the fuel prices from ₹120 per litre to ₹60 per litre by using bio-ethanol with the fuel. He says, “Our petroleum import is of ₹17 lakh crores and a day will come when our farmers will generate fuel".

Toyota Mirai is already being sold in the global market. On a full tank, Mirai can go up to 646 km. The driving range is significantly better than what current electric cars are offering. However, the issue is the infrastructure. As of now, the availability of hydrogen in our country is sparse.