New Delhi: To reduce the dependency on fuel, the Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari arrived at the Parliament in a green hydrogen-powered car on Wednesday.

“The name of this car is 'Mirai', it means the future. We have to become self-reliant in fuels as well”, he says, ANI reported.

“To become 'Atmanirbhar', we have introduced green hydrogen which is generated from water. This car is a pilot project. Now, manufacturing of green hydrogen will begin in country, imports will be curbed and new employment opportunities will be created”, Mr. Gadkari told reporters.

“Centre has initiated Rs 3000 crore mission and (soon) we will become a county exporting hydrogen. Wherever coal is used (in the country), green hydrogen will be used there”, he added.

The car will run on green hydrogen fuel, it has been launched as a pilot project to gauge the feasibility of such vehicles. Mr. Gadkari has received the vehicle from the Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Company.

“Toyota company from Japan has given me a vehicle which runs on green hydrogen. I will use it myself as a pilot project”, recently he told media persons in Goa.

Several Indian companies such as Reliance, Adani group, Indian oil and natural thermal power corporation (NTPC) are leading India’s mission to adopt green hydrogen, which is the cleanest form of energy. They have embraced hydrogen as fuel and have also announced plans to transition toward carbon-free fuel.

The central government is also promoting the adoption of other cleaner and greener alternative fuels such as ethanol, methanol, bio-diesel, bio-CNG, LNG, electric and fuel cell technology to reduce dependency on petrol and diesel fuels.

The road transport ministry has also issued an advisory to automakers in the country to start producing new vehicles which flex-fuel engines in six months. These engines will give the users an option to run a vehicle on either 100 percent petrol or 100 percent bio-ethanol.