- By Pawan Mishra
- Tue, 27 May 2025 01:12 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
Nitin Gadkari Birthday: Nitin Gadkari is serving as Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways in the Government of India, and he is celebrating his 68th birthday today. Gadkari is one of the most popular politicians in the country, which can be attributed to the changes he implemented to ensure safer, smoother road connectivity, along with ensuring sustainable growth for the Indian Automobile Industry. Here we are listing 5 changes implemented by him that revolutionized roads, transport, and the auto industry of the country.
India’s Own Car Crash Test- BNCAP
Most of the Indian automakers did not send their cars to Global NCAP (GNCAP) for crash tests due to several factors. Some argued that their cars are safe as per the Indian Government’s safety regulations, while some stated that GNCAP fails to meet Indian road conditions, and some used to say it costs more, which is unnecessary. All of these factors made it crucial for India to have its own Car Assessment Program. After which, BNCAP was introduced on August 22, 2023, by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari.
Six Airbags Made Mandatory
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari has always been a strong advocate of car safety. He proposed that all passenger vehicles should include basic safety features, such as 6 airbags. This was made mandatory later, and now most of the cars sold in India offer a 6-airbag as a standard feature. Now, the union minister is gearing up to implement the same kind of changes to the commercial vehicles in the country, and he is planning to introduce regulations in this regard very soon.
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Ethanol-Methanol All Is Fuel
Gadkari promotes biofuels, such as Ethanol and Methanol, to replace traditional fossil fuels. He has been playing a key role in promoting waste-to-energy technologies, and he has established several facilities for Ethanol Production in India. These facilities use waste such as Rice Stubble and Sugarcane bagasse to produce Ethanol. He also highly advocates for Flex-fuel and electric vehicles, and he is also promoting CBG (Compressed Bio Gas)-powered vehicles in the country.
Hydrogen: The Fuel Of Future
Along with promoting Biofuels, such as Ethanol, Methanol, and CBG, Union Minister Gadkari also promotes Hydrogen as a fuel. He was gifted a Mirai sedan by Toyota, which is a hydrogen-powered car, and it has zero emissions. Gadkari said during an event that ‘Hydrogen is the fuel of future , and while currently we have to spend 50 units of electricity to produce hydrogen, we are working to reduce it to produce 1 Kg of hydrogen for 1 dollar, which will make hydrogen-powered cars more affordable than electric cars’.
Amendments To The Motor Vehicles Act
Nitin Gadkari also made a few changes to the Motor Vehicles Act in 2019. Violating traffic rules earlier attracted moderate penalties, and realizing the need for stricter norms for traffic violations, Gadkari made amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act in 2019 and hiked the amount of penalties. However, Nitin Gadkari seemed frustrated while addressing the World Safety Conference during September 2024, and he said, ‘even stricter penalties are not deterring the drivers, and people are not taking it seriously. How much should we increase the fines? This can only be changed by changing the Human Behaviour.’
